The 4 top productivity drivers
by Miki SaxonDoing more for less. Productivity is always important, but it’s especially critical as the economy toughens.
The 40 year-old Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) is the world’s largest private network of corporations focused on improving workforce productivity.
Although i4cp requires membership to access much of its data, the Trendwatcher archives are free and loaded with useful information.
The research that caught my eye shows that “the most productive organizations furthest outstripped the average ones 
in four areas:
- Culture: 79% of the most productive organizations say that, to a high or very high degree, the cultures of their organizations help raise employee productivity.
- Leadership: 76% of highly productive companies said that, to a high or very high extent, leadership in their companies raises productivity.
- Employee engagement: 59% of highly productive organizations use engagement practices to a high or very high extent. Engagement means that workers are mentally and emotionally invested in their work and in contributing to their employer’s success.
- Employee health/wellness programs: Although It could be an anomaly, “People like to work for organizations that send strong signals that they care for their employees. These particular programs may be sending those signals more than most other types of initiatives do,”
How does your company rate in each of the four areas?
Your comments—priceless
Don’t miss a post, subscribe via RSS or EMAIL
Image credit: srbichara CC license
August 8th, 2008 at 8:27 am
It’s not an anomaly. The ROI for showing, in tangible and meaningful ways, your care for those in your company comes in the form of lower employee churn, higher loyalty, greater engagement (more positive contributions, greater loyalty) with the company’s goals, more positive interactions with others in the company. That all translates into higher customer loyalty scores, higher referral rates, higher sales conversion rates, less need for marketing/advertising, less need for employee training and recruiting, improved cash-flows…
It’s definitely not an anomaly. If you’ve ever experienced the difference in your day when you work at a company that cares for its employees vs one that communicates its indifference, you’ll know it’s not an anomaly. But if you haven’t, then A. you’re fortunate, perhaps; B. the stats are consistent that positive ROI for investing in the care of your employees.
August 8th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Hi Zane, thanks for stopping by and adding to the conversation. First, I totally agree with what you say, I’m not the one who said it could be an anomaly, I’m the one who put the quote mark in the wrong place because I paraphrased it.
Of course caring matters and the ROI has been proved by Frederick Reichheld, author of Loyalty Rules! (2001), who shows in carefully researched studies that a 5% improvement in employee retention translates to a 25%-100% gain in earnings, among other things. Hard numbers, too, not smoky feelings (perhaps we should send a copy to i4cp).
Of course, with Wall Street’s attitude that the way to ‘maximize shareholder value’ is to spend as little as possible on employees (other than their own, of course) doesn’t exactly encourage public corporations to follow this path.
August 14th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Hi Miki:
Zane started a conversation at The Employee Engagement Network based on your article: http://www.employeeengagement.ning.com. You might want to take a look.
David
August 14th, 2008 at 10:08 am
One more note: The link added the period above. It should just be:
http://www.employeeengagement.ning.com
August 14th, 2008 at 11:57 am
David, I followed your link, although I’d been three wen it went up. Please thank Zane for the link-luv for me.
Commenting requires registration and I’m tired of providing personal info to places to which I may or may not return. Ning’s registration requires DOB info. Yes, I know that it floats around the web along with everything else, but, dinosaur that I am, I’m tired of handing out info, such as when I was born, that isn’t needed and has nothing to do with my actions.
Which is why I didn’t comment when the post went up and I received notification of the link.
August 31st, 2008 at 6:30 pm
[…] – bookmarked by 6 members originally found by Vivjan on 2008-08-15 The 4 top productivity drivers http://www.mappingcompanysuccess.com/the-4-top-productivity-drivers/ – bookmarked by 3 members originally […]