One of the hallmarks of a great workplace is a culture of continuous learning. When employees regularly and proactively seek out knowledge, not only does it enhance their own skill set, it can lead to new ideas, improved problem solving abilities, and ultimately, improved business outcomes. In other words, a workforce that’s constantly upskilling and learning is a serious competitive advantage. At Compt, we’re lucky to see countless ways to use professional development stipends through our own professional development products.

If you’re interested in fostering your team’s professional development, a professional development stipend can help you do just that.

Professional development stipends are a fantastic way to give employees the freedom to choose what they need to evolve in their careers. Since every job and every department is different, the flexibility of a stipend helps HR teams accommodate their organization’s diverse needs. 

Yet, despite the advantages of this popular employee benefit, many employees struggle with concrete ways to use it. In this article, we’ll go over eight ways our very own team here at Compt uses their professional development stipend, which is exactly what has happened with the recent launch of Professional Development Pro™ by Compt.

One of my favorite things about working for a fast-paced HR tech organization like Compt is that we get a firsthand look at new stipends being rolled out, to give our product team real-time feedback from the employee perspective.

Those who use Professional Development Pro by Compt also get a look at what others are using their stipends for in our community feed, which has real-time reviews from users on their professional development uses. The coolest thing about this (in my opinion) is that you can look at users outside of your own company, so if you’re the only Head of Brand and Comms (ahem) on a small team (definitely not me), then you can see what others in a similar field or position to you are doing, too.

Here’s a look at what Compters are spending their professional stipend dollars on this year:

1. Attend conferences, seminars, or webinars

Joining a conference, seminar, or a webinar allows you to fully immerse yourself in your chosen community, whether you want to be surrounded by engineering wizards, HR visionaries, accounting pros, or marketing gurus. These settings present so many opportunities for networking and can be especially beneficial for smaller teams, which are more likely to have ‘departments of one.’ 

Depending on the flexibility of the professional development program you create, a stipend can help employees choose the right support, such as: 

• professional membership fees
• travel expenses associated with attending a conference
• conference registration fees
• supplies needed to participate in a workshop

Compt’s Founder and CEO, Amy Spurling, talks about how she uses her stipend: 

“I used our stipend to attend a professional meetup for HR professionals. It’s always great to talk shop with fellow HR leaders and form valuable connections within the industry. Some of the people I’ve met have contributed their unique insights to our content and a few have even referred customers!”

Our Vice President of Finance, Megan Dunn, used her stipend to attend a virtual webinar hosted by the CFO Leadership Council.

“I used my professional development stipend to attend a fascinating webinar led by Andy Fastow, whose tenure at Enron is a cautionary tale in business ethics. Ethical excellence is a central priority for out organization and this benefit helps reinforce that by providing an opportunity to draw on wisdom from others in the field.”

2. Hire a career coach

Career coaches can help employees develop managerial skills, minimize burnout, and address many other common challenges that professionals deal with today.  

A coach provides the support and accountability that keeps you on track and ensures you meet your development goals, whether your employees are getting ready to assume a role with more responsibility or they’re simply looking to improve in their current role. 

Our VP of Marketing, Sarah Bedrick, has relied on coaches to help her achieve her potential: 

“Earlier in my career, after months of feeling stuck, I decided to take a bold step and invest in myself by hiring a coach. Little did I know, it would be a decision that would change the trajectory of my career.

With the guidance and support of my coach, I embarked on a journey of self-discovery, uncovering my strengths, passions, and untapped potential. I gained clarity on my career goals and developed a roadmap to achieve them. All of this was made possible because of Compt’s professional development stipend.”

3. Buy career-related books

Employees can use professional development stipends to buy books related to general career development or industry-specific knowledge.

Our Head of Customer Success, Mary Migiano, recently used her stipend to purchase a slew of books from Amazon.

“During insightful discussions about career growth, my manager suggested several business books tailored to my interests, like ‘Shoe Dog’ and ‘Good to Great’ by Jim Collins. These books will remain on my bookshelf for years to come!”

Our Head of Engineering, Francisco Calderon, also used his stipend to purchase books on management. 

“Professional development isn’t just about gaining new technical skills; it’s about evolving as a leader. Through my professional development stipend, I’ve been able to purchase books like ‘Engineering Management for the Rest of Us’ and ‘The Coaching Habit’ to deepen my understanding of effective leadership and engineering management.”

Even a small quarterly stipend can go a long way toward showing your employees you care about their continued development.

Pro tip: According to our customer data, funding for professional development stipends can range from $100 per employee annually, all the way up to $2,000. Even a little goes a long way!

4. Brush up on foundational skills

With the technology and tools needed to be successful at your job changing at lightning pace (hello, AI), even the basics are evolving quickly. Think about the type of programs you used 10 years ago, and consider that there are likely tons of updates, tips, and tricks you don’t know about to help you become even more equipped to handle day-to-day tasks. That was the case for Mary, who used her stipend (again!) to take a dedicated Excel online course.

“This isn’t just another boring Excel course, Kat keeps it fun and engaging! I loved that she included templates so you can practice as you go. I’d say I’m an intermediate user, and while I picked up some cool new tricks, there weren’t any huge takeaways for me. If you’re a beginner looking to level up your Excel skills, I totally recommend this course. The lessons are super easy to follow and broken down into digestible sections. When you sign up, you also get her newsletter, where she also shares helpful tips and tricks!”

5. Join an improv class

Even if your job doesn’t involve working as a standup comic, there are so many tremendous benefits that come from improv skills such as communication, collaboration, and adaptability. 

Compt’s Head of Brand, Lauren Schneider, used her professional development stipend for an improv class at Happy Valley Improv.

“It’s amazing to see just how much I could apply the skills learned in improv classes to my work. With improv, there’s no script to follow, no predetermined lines to recite. Instead, you’re challenged to think on your feet, adapt to unexpected situations, and communicate clearly with others — this comes in handy in a number of ways, such as when I host our show ‘Getting Personal with Compt’!”

6. Subscribe to a newsletter or industry trade publication

Subscribing to a paid newsletter offers individuals a direct pipeline to curated, high-quality content tailored to their professional interests. Unlike free resources, paid newsletters often feature exclusive insights, expert analysis, and in-depth research, providing subscribers with a competitive edge in their field. 

Many people find daily or weekly newsletters to be beneficial as the information is packaged in bite-sized pieces by thought leaders in their industry. 

Our VP of Product and Operations stays up to date with trends in Product through a targeted newsletter: 

“I used my stipend to purchase a subscription to Lenny’s Newsletter — it’s a weekly product newsletter that I love! They share lots of valuable insights from product/engineering leaders all around-many of the learnings I’ve applied to our work here at Compt.” 

7. Take a course or workshop

The great thing about a stipend is employees aren’t limited to the vendors within their geographic area. This is especially advantageous if your team is remote.

You can take a virtual course, an in-person course at a community college-the options are truly limitless. 

Divya Laul, our California-based Senior Manager of Go To Market Content, has used her stipend for courses from the Product Marketing Alliance. 

“Utilizing my stipend to enroll in the Advanced Product Marketing Certified course has been a game-changer for me. This investment not only deepened my expertise in product marketing but also equipped me with both the tactics and overarching strategy to help me achieve the best results when I’m crafting content.”

On the other side of the United States, Head of Content Chloe Thompson uses her stipend to capture the variety of courses and webinars that Marketing Profs has to offer all year long, with a dedicated professional development plan to make sure it fits her schedule and career goals.

“I immediately spent my stipend on a Marketing Profs subscription, which gives me access to tons of content, everything from their on-demand presentations from annual conferences that I couldn’t attend, to dedicated coursework on AI content creation, writing for different audiences, and best-in-class marketing workshops.”

8. Invest in productivity tools

Our professional development stipend program is fairly flexible, so it does include things like productivity tools and other areas that some professional development accounts might not consider. But as we saw with this year’s Lifestyle Benefits Benchmark Report, flexibility is critical when it comes to a successful professional development design, as our own Compt customers used their stipend in countless different ways.

So we do see quite a few reimbursements on productivity tools, such as Claude, which I use on the regular to hone in on different tone of voices and craft inherently awesome copy. I use it as a bit of a sparring partner to bounce ideas off of and help me refine our content.

On the other hand, we’re all really big fans of Fathom, with Mary (yes, her again! She’s an overachiever.) being one of our biggest champions for the call-recording tool.

“My day is a combo of strategy, coaching, team collaboration, and customer convos. I rely on this to record, transcribe, summarize key takeaways, and assign action items. It makes me more efficient, freeing up time to help me focus on my growth rather than just managing daily tasks. Being able to revisit all of these conversations sharpens my communication, allows me to spot trends, and enhances my skills in real-time.”

Is your business set up for professional development success?

Our dedicated product, Professional Development Pro by Compt, centralizes and streamlines requests, approvals, and budget tracking. It completely eliminates the need for complicated workflows, forms, spreadsheets, and workarounds in expense management tools.

Sound like something your team could use? We’re just a click away!

Originally published in 2023, this post has been recently updated for clarity and relevance for our readers.