Private Online Tutoring for Working Families: Literature Review and Employer Case Study

Abstract

This Note begins with a summary of key points from a recent white paper that reviews the research literature on offering private educational tutoring as a corporate benefit for employees and their family members. We describe what motivates employers to offer it as a benefit, the nature of the service, and the modern online delivery context. We then present highlights of a 2014 survey of 345 employees from a Fortune 100 company, all of which had one or more of their children as users of an online private tutoring service during the past year. Results are presented concerning a profile of the users, effects of service use on user scholastic outcomes, and the impact of family use of tutoring on workplace outcomes for the employee/parent (recruitment, absenteeism, presenteeism, and retention) and their general attitudes toward the company culture. This research suggests that private tutoring is highly valued by employee users and deserves further consideration as a new kind of benefit to augment the existing suite of EAP and Work-Life services.