Over the past few years, Murphy & Associates has offered short-term Lynda.com licenses to employees for training purposes. For the most part, we received positive feedback about the training program. Lynda.com’s recent overhaul of their subscription policy, however, has led us to re-evaluate our approach.
A little background is in order. Back in the day (i.e. 2017), Lynda.com enabled companies to hold a number of transferable user licenses. This worked great for us; Murphy & Associates held on to twenty licenses and M&A consultants could check out licenses for three-month stints. Over the 2017, about 50 different employees took advantage of the licenses.
With the dawn of the new year, however, Lynda changed its name to LinkedIn Learning and eliminated our ability to transfer licenses. Bummer. But change can be good. Although we love Lynda/LinkedIn Learning, it is not the only game in town, and online classes aren’t the only way to enhance your skills. With that in mind, we have updated our training policy, and liberated ourselves from Lynda’s shackles (a little dramatic, but you get the picture).
For 2018, we will match employee training expenses, up to $100 per year per employee. For example, if you want to take Certificate Class on Java from Coursera that costs $200, we will pay for $100 and run the other $100 as a pre-tax expense on your next paycheck. If the class is $300, we will pay for $100 and run the balance as a pre-tax expense. If the class is $150, we will pay for $75 and run $75 as pre-tax. You get the drift, right?
The upshot is that there is no longer a waiting list for training, nor is there a limit on the type of resource you utilize. You can use the tuition subsidy for a professional seminar, an online class on Udemy, an individual account on LinkedIn Training or a to help pay for a certification class. If interested, please contact our operations team for more information.