Do employees like their jobs? Why should owners and managers care?
Quote: “More than 100 top-level executives at Sears, Roebuck and Co. spent three years rebuilding the company around its customers. In this excerpt from their article in the Harvard Business Review, three members of the Sears team discuss the new business model based on new measurement techniques and the realization that “there is a chain of cause and effect running from employee behavior to customer behavior to profits.” –Harvard Business Review “The Employee-Customer Profit Chain” October 1998
The work by Sears over a decade ago clearly shows that when employees are “engaged” in their jobs it makes a BIG financial impact on the business. Sears built a “compelling place to work” to then create a “compelling place to shop” and turned around Sears to become a “compelling place to invest.” (Ten years ago the stock was trading under $15 a share, April 2012 stock price is $68 a share).
How do you get Engaged employees?
Engagement comes from multiple sources but the key three elements are:
- Aligning employee activity and results with organizational goals
- Regularly communicating core values and mission to employees
- Providing development and advancement opportunities
Quick engagement survey
Ask yourself these three questions:
- Does every employee show up on Monday morning knowing how she can help achieve the quarterly and annual business plan?
- Can every employee state the organization’s values and mission (and as a bonus, do they demonstrate these values and believe in the mission)?
- Does every employee have a personalized development plan?
If you cannot emphatically answer “YES” to each of these three questions, you need a People Plan™
Read the Harvard Business Review article here: “The Employee-Customer Profit Chain”
Diana Southall is a fifth generation entrepreneur, and creator of the People Plan toolkit.™ Her firm specializes in coaching small business owners and managers to build, engage and reward a fabulous team!
You can start working with Diana with free members-only access to People coaching resources, including informative video training, articles, time saving documents and templates. Join the FREE membership club here.
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