Workplace of Choice

A recent study, Profit at the Bottom of the Ladder, by Jody Heymann has found something that many Human Resources professionals have known for years, the more you invest in your employees, the harder they work. It seems simple, right?  But yet, it’s always been a challenge to quantify this relationship. This study gives actual financial statistics as to why it is important to invest in employees, the very proof we’ve been looking for.

The study explains how many companies invest mostly in their higher level employees but that employers should invest in all of their employees.  Often times employers think that investing in lower level employees is a waste of time and effort because they’re not as committed as higher level employees and may soon leave the company.  On the contrary, this study proves that employee productivity can be significantly increased, employee turnover reduced and other costs cut by investing in all employees. For example, Xerox Europe started to “offer training and career tracks to line workers [which] led to lower turnover and easier recruitment, and served to make employees more efficient while they were with the company.” Normally, in the call center industry, turnover rates are extremely high but Xerox was able to promote 20% of their entry-level employees over a one-year period. Another great example is Autoliv Australia, a company that makes auto parts. They changed their leave and vacation/PTO policy to be more flexible for all employees which made their turnover rate fall from 20% to 3%.

Investing in your employees can give your company a huge return. How do you invest in your employees?