Chegg helps repay the debt of its employees

Chegg has put in place a new plan to help its employees manage their student loans.

And his CEO wants other companies to follow Chegg's writing.

The student-connected learning platform on Thursday announced a new program that will give up to $ 5,000 a year to its junior employees, since they have been serving the company since at least two years. Employees who hold the position of director or vice-president may receive up to $ 3,000 annually to repay their debt.

"Companies need to play a role here," Chegg CEO Dan Rosensweig told CNBC's "Closing Bell" on Thursday.

"We are the beneficiaries of those who have studied – it does not matter whether they are in four or two years or even if they finish it," he added. "If they borrowed money and they create value for us, we want to help them."

Debt related to student loans reached a record level, borrowers in front of a total of $ 1.5 trillion. About 7 out of 10 university graduates have an education debt.

Many are also unable to find ways to pay their bills. More than one million borrowers are in default each year. By 2023, 40% of borrowers may not be able to repay their student loan.

The latest benefit of Chegg is in addition to the $ 1,000 in cash that its employees with student debt already receive each year. To pay the program, called Equity for Education, Chegg created a stock pool from its existing stock.

"We have a mess and it's probably the biggest economic crisis the country is facing, and we're not dealing with it enough," Rosensweig said.

The Californian company of Santa Clara, California, is certainly not the only company that helps workers with some sort of help with student loans.

Last year, Fidelity began offering businesses a way to contribute to the student debt of their employees through its Employer Debt Contribution Program. Today, more than 65 companies offer or are offering the benefit.

"A growing number of businesses are increasingly aware that helping their employees solve the problem of student debt can help improve their overall financial health, which can also have an impact." positive from a business point of view, "said Asha Srikantiah, responsible for the employer contribution of Fidelity student debt.

In fact, Fidelity has already seen an improvement in the recruitment and retention of top talent since the start of the program's offering to its own employees in 2016.

"For eligible Fidelity employees from 2016 to 2018, we have seen a reduction of approximately 75% in sales during the first year of participation in the program," Srikantiah said. "And, according to a recent internal survey, it's one of the two main reasons why people have decided to join Fidelity."

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Nevertheless, companies that offer this type of advantage remain the minority. About 4% made it in 2018, according to the Society for Human Resource Management.

Chegg's CEO said his company was thinking long and hard about creating a program that could be copied by other companies.

"We wanted to see if we could give the example and create a dialogue," said Rosensweig.

He also hopes the government and colleges will learn about Chegg's plan and do their part to help the crisis.

"We are taking the most vulnerable, the least stable financially and we are creating an unsustainable burden," said Rosensweig.

– Annie Nova from CNBC contributed to this report.