Employees are a company’s greatest asset. Yet many companies treat their employees poorly. Sadly, our system has fallen into a self-reinforcing command loop construct as follows: Increase shareholder value at all costs without regard for the human factor.
The greatest investment you can make is in people. Employees are the backbone of any organization. According to research conducted by Gallup, disengaged employees cost companies $450-to-$550 billion in lost productivity each year as a result of poor performance and high absenteeism. Investment in people improves the performance of the organization. Additionally, developing staff is one of the most effective motivator for retaining them. One of the top reasons employees leave a company is the lack of development opportunities. Employees can interpret an employer’s unwillingness to invest in training as a disregard for their professional development.
Research shows, there is an economic link between employee satisfaction and company financial performance. A happy workplace culture does translate into better stock returns. Happy Employees = Happy Customers = Happy Shareholders.
Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to. – Richard Branson
Your front-line employees know your customers best; they interact with them daily. They have the answers on how to improve customer service and your products. They use your internal tools and systems every day. They have the solutions on how to improve systems which can save money by driving efficiencies. When you empower employees, you promote vested interest in the company. This allows creativity and innovation in the workplace which is necessary to succeed in today’s volatile marketplace.
Your employees are your most valuable asset – Don’t take them for granted or treat them poorly. They are your best brand ambassadors. Employees who have been pushed to the point where they no longer care, will not go the extra mile. They will not take the initiative to solve problems. They will end up treating customers the same way you treat them.
If you believe, that employees are your most valuable asset, you will create a healthy work atmosphere and provide them with the tools and support to do their jobs effectively.
Instead of just focusing on the bottom-line; Why not invest in the people responsible for the bottom-line? At the University of Pennsylvania, researchers discovered that businesses that spent 10% of their revenue on capital improvements saw a 3.9% productivity increase. But get this—when that same 10% was invested in employees, productivity went up 8.5%.
Employees are the heart beat of the company. And if the heart stops beating…What will happen?
Check out my latest Bestselling Book
Leading the Workforce of the Future
