Starbucks

Starbucks Coffee now offers to its employees (who work at least 20 hrs/wk) a free 4-yr college education through Arizona State University's online program. They figure it will cost them about $250 million and educate about 25,000 employees.

This article reports the results so far this year

• compared to the average online student, Starbucks employees are a bit younger (26) and a bit more committed
• employees have started to enroll in good numbers
• it's turned out to be an "epic" recruiting and retention tool

Of new hires, 63% say they are interested in taking up the offer, and most say that the offer is one of the main reasons they applied to Starbucks.