APPLICABILITY
Indicator metrics apply to all employees (see definition in General Clarifications). For organizations pursuing Level 2 and above, professional development benefits must be provided on a prorated basis to part-time employees who work at least 20 hours per week.
FORMS OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
For the purposes of Just, examples of professional development include professional continuing education; leadership training; tuition support for higher education, community college, or General Educational Development (GED) courses; apprenticeship and skilled trades programs; certificate programs; language training; career coaching; or other personal development such as financial literacy and management. Professional development should be dependent on the employees’ own skills and training needs as well as their professional goals.77
MECHANISMS OF SUPPORT
The support provided can include direct payment or reimbursement of tuition and fees; subsidies for university courses or training programs; and direct payment or reimbursement for books, travel, lodging, and expenses. For the purposes of Just, allocated funds are in addition to the costs associated with the work time used to participate in professional development.
MENTORSHIP PROGRAMS
Mentorship is a relationship between two people where the mentor provides advice and guidance to their mentee to help them grow, learn, and develop professionally.78 Mentorship programs yield numerous benefits for both the mentees and mentors as well as the organization.79 For the purposes of Just, mentorship programs must include the following minimum components:
- A defined goal for the program;
- Documentation of the program process, such as how to enroll, how mentors and mentees are matched, how often mentors and mentees should meet, mentorship term lengths, and how the program will be evaluated;
- Defined mentor criteria; and
- A designated program administrator or coordinator.
See Resources for further resources on this topic.
ORGANIZATION-WIDE TRAINING
Externally contracted training provided by the organization for all employees can count toward the allocation threshold by dividing the total training cost by the number of employees.
For Levels 2 to 4, organization-wide professional development provided by an external trainer can contribute towards 25% of the metric thresholds. The maximum amount that can be used on organization-wide professional development efforts by level are:
- Level 2: Up to USD $125.
- Level 3: Up to USD $250.
- Level 4: Up to USD $500.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT POLICY
If an organization with part-time employees is pursuing Level 2 or above, the Professional Development policy must specify that the benefits are accessible regardless of employee type (i.e., full-time or part-time). Employees must be allowed to use their professional development benefits during paid work time.
USAGE TRACKING AND PROPORTIONAL PARTICIPATION
Tracking employee usage of benefits facilitates organizations’ awareness of whether the current benefit provisions and structure are effective. Further analysis can demonstrate whether or not equity issues exist in the usage of benefits like professional development. The purpose of the Level 4 proportional usage metric is for organizations to demonstrate that professional development benefits are not only being used by employees in senior positions or who have certain demographic identities (e.g., white men) while others are being left behind. For the purposes of this Indicator, organizations should analyze participation in professional development by racial and ethnic as well as gender identities.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
77 Society for Human Resource Management. (2022). 2022 Workplace Learning & Development Trends. Retrieved January 26, 2023, from https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/research/2022-workplace-learning-development-trends.
78 atWork Australia. (2023, September 15). The Benefits of Mentorship for Employees and Employers. Retrieved April 3, 2024, from https://www.atworkaustralia.com.au/the-benefits-of-mentorship-for-employees-and-employers/.
79 Reeves, M. (2023, October 11). Mentoring Programs: Purpose, Benefits + How to Get Started. Together. Retrieved April 3, 2024, from https://www.togetherplatform.com/blog/what-is-the-purpose-of-mentoring.
