来源：《哈佛商业评论》2023年5月6月双月刊
Companies are quick to calculate the costs of investing in skills development for low-wage workers, but they tend to ignore the hidden costs of constantly searching for, hiring, onboarding, and training employees, not to mention paying overtime to existing staffers to get essential work done. In other words, they focus on the investment and disregard the return. Small wonder they are reluctant to invest.
公司能够很快计算出投资于低薪员工技能提升的成本，但他们往往忽略了不断寻找、招聘、入职和培训员工的隐性成本，更不用说向现有员工支付加班费用，让他们完成重要的工作。换句话说，他们只关注投资而忽视回报。难怪他们不愿投资员工技能提升。
Disney is among the few major U.S. companies that have shown they understand the business case for upgrading the skills of a frontline workforce. In 2018 the company launched Disney Aspire, an education-investment program for both full-time and part-time hourly workers across the United States. Once eligible employees have been with Disney for 90 days, they can enroll in the program, which allows them to choose between earning a degree or a high school diploma and acquiring a new vocational skill—with Disney paying 100% of their tuition costs up front and reimbursing them for applicable fees and books. Academic partners for Disney Aspire include North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, the culinary-focused Johnson & Wales University, and several institutions near two of Disney’s largest hourly-employment sites: California State University, Fullerton and Fullerton College; and the University of Central Florida and Valencia College.
迪士尼是为数不多的几家已经表明自己理解提升一线员工技能的商业理由的美国大公司之一。018年，该公司推出了迪士尼Aspire，这是一项面向全美全职和兼职小时工的教育投资计划。一旦符合条件的员工在迪士尼工作满90天，他们就可以参加该计划，该计划允许他们在获得学位或高中文凭和获得一项新的职业技能之间做出选择——迪士尼将全额支付他们的学费，并报销他们的相关费用和书本费。迪士尼Aspire的学术合作伙伴包括北卡罗来纳农业技术州立大学、专注于烹饪的约翰逊和威尔士大学，以及迪士尼最大的两个小时制就业点附近的几个大学：加州州立大学富勒顿分校和富勒顿学院；以及中佛罗里达大学和巴伦西亚学院。
More than 14,000 hourly employees are currently enrolled in Disney Aspire. Of those, 50% are working toward a bachelor’s or a master’s degree. Since the program’s inception 3,500 have graduated. Disney has been able to promote more than 2,800 students and graduates internally, because Aspire has given them skills and opportunities to explore professional growth. That’s helping the company build a more diverse organization: Of those workers who are currently enrolled in the program, more than 50% are persons of color, and more than 60% are women. Finally, the program is helping the company attract talent: A quarter of all the people who apply for hourly positions say that they were motivated to do so because they knew they could get access to education, training, and career pathways through Aspire. The outcomes are impressive: Aspire made it possible, for example, for an hourly attraction operator to become an associate electrical engineer in the facilities department and for a merchandiser to become a global HR operations associate with the corporate team.
迪士尼Aspire目前有14000多名小时工。其中，50%的人正在攻读学士或硕士学位。自该项目启动以来，已有3500人毕业。迪士尼已经能够在内部提拔2800多名学生和毕业生，因为Aspire为他们提供了探索职业成长的技能和机会。这有助于该公司建立一个更加多元化的组织：在目前加入该计划的员工中，超过50%是有色人种，超过60%是女性。最后，该计划有助于公司吸引人才：四分之一申请小时工职位的人表示，他们之所以有动力作出这样的职业选择，是因为他们知道通过Aspire可以获得教育、培训和职业发展的机会。结果令人印象深刻：例如，Aspire使一名小时景点操作员成为设施部门的副电气工程师，一名跟单员成为公司团队的全球人力资源运营助理。