Benefits in action: For this Lowe's employee, education benefits breed company loyalty

Damian Whilby had long considered going back to school. But the timing was never right. 

"There were several barriers to education, the first being financial," says Whilby, a husband and father of three. "I didn't have that security blanket to help with additional expenses." 

All that changed earlier this year. 

Whilby has spent the last 10 years working at a Lowe's in Snellville, Georgia, having started as a part-time worker before climbing his way up the company ladder to an assistant store manager of operations. He's committed to Lowe's, he says, because the organization is invested in its workers — Lowe's has long offered $2,500 annual tuition reimbursement benefits, as well as access to trade certificate programs for its employees, through which Whilby completed a carpentry program in 2019. In the spring of 2022, when Lowe's announced a new debt-free education benefit, he felt his loyalty swell. 

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Courtesy of Damian Whilby

"I'm going for that bachelor's degree, baby," says Whilby, who signed up to get a bachelor's degree in operations management through Lowe's partnership with Guild Education, a platform that works with employers to give workforces access to high school diploma programs, professional certificates and college and master's degrees. The benefit is available to all part- and full-time employees. 

"The program offers 100% reimbursement and even covers books, so I basically pay nothing, and I had all these different avenues and degrees to choose from," says Whilby, who's enrolled in online courses through Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU). "It's not costing me a penny." 

Much like they have for Whilby, education benefits can strengthen employees' commitment to an organization at a time when companies are struggling to recruit and retain labor and talent. A study by education benefits program EdAssist and Bright Horizons found that 85% of workers who participate in tuition assistance programs provided by their employer say they're a better employee because of the program, while 84% say access to a tuition assistance program impacted their decision to join a company in the first place. 

Providing valuable education benefits combined with a company culture of support and flexibility can drive both employee retention and benefit utilization. For Whilby, taking advantage of Lowe's previous tuition-reimbursement program wasn't always a possibility, despite appreciation of the benefit's existence. In recent years, Whilby explains, his wife went back to school to become a registered nurse — and in support of her goals, the father of three temporarily put his own education on the back burner. 

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"I didn't want to put that extra burden on my family, for both of us to be trying to go back to college at the same time," he says. "It would have been too much to do, so I had to step in and just be that primary breadwinner, so to speak." 

Once the timing was right (and coincided with the expanded Lowe's offering), he was eager to hit the books — but managing a course load with a full-time job comes with its own challenges. Whilby knew it would take some work to fit all his responsibilities in, but he figured he'd leap first and perfect his schedule later. 

"I had a conversation with my family and just said, 'Lowe's is presenting me with this opportunity, and I have to jump on it,'" he says. "I didn't know how I would juggle it all, but I knew I'd never find the formula unless I really needed to." 

After enrolling, an introductory time-management course through SNHU helped him perfect that formula, offering strategies to make space for family, work, and school. 

"It really teaches you to pencil out your schedule and priorities, being as realistic as possible," he says. "Once you start looking at a 24-hour time frame, you start to see that you can have way more time than you anticipated, as long as you put that into focus and prioritize what you want to accomplish." 

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He adds that the company, even at the store level, works to create systems of support for its employees. Not only does Whilby have a good relationship with his manager, but says the company creates scheduling options to support other priorities its team members may be juggling. 

"You can work in the morning, you can build a more structured schedule," he says. "So just in case you want to go back to college, you can do that without having to worry about your job being in the way."

Whilby says he's already encouraged colleagues to take advantage of the benefits provided by the company, stressing the zero-cost, zero-strings-attached programs that can help advance one's career, either at Lowe's or beyond. For Whilby, who anticipates completing his bachelor's degree in the next four to five years, he hopes the additional skills set him up to continue climbing the ladder at Lowe's. 

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"My ultimate goal is to be a store manager," he says. "This degree will put me on a level playing field to compete for higher-paying positions within the company, and it will put me in a position where I can impact other associates, and bring them along with me." 

As he's watched the company's benefits offerings continue to expand to meet the needs of their employee base, Whilby has felt reassured that he's a priority to the organization. 

"One thing about our core values is, Lowe's is very open about learning," he says. "If you want to move up and you're willing to commit to the company, they provide avenues for you to learn about the areas in which you want to improve, get better, and grow as an individual."