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It’s a widely held belief that in order for places like retail stores, restaurants, and distribution centers to be successful, they need to squeeze everything they can out of their front-line workers and give them as little in return. This goes beyond offering low wages to irregular schedules, minimal benefits, a lack of substantive career paths, and a general lack of consideration for worker well-being among decision-makers. Extends.
No wonder, then, that such industries suffer from constant employee turnover, low productivity, low employee morale, etc.
The Good Jobs Institute offers companies an alternative path to success, based on a framework developed by Professor Zeynep Tong of the MIT Sloan School of Management. The system combines strategic investments in employees with operational decisions that improve employee productivity, contribution, and motivation.
By implementing what Tong calls “good work strategies,” companies can significantly reduce employee turnover, increase employee productivity, and dramatically increase customer satisfaction and sales. did.
“Our mission is to help businesses thrive by creating good jobs, but another part of our mission is to help companies thrive and change the conversation about what it means to be successful and the role of employees in organizations. ,” says Tong.
For example, Sam’s Club, owned by Walmart, reported increased revenue, increased productivity, and sharply reduced turnover after adopting the Good Jobs Strategy. But more than business metrics, executives say it’s humbling to be part of a movement that meaningfully improves people’s lives.
Tim Simmons, chief product officer at Sam’s Club, personally witnessed the impact of this strategy when he toured the club with regional managers who announced their first raises in 2019. People started crying. Some later reported that they no longer needed to work on the side. Many people said it changed their lives.
“What I remind my students is that [influential business author] Clay Christensen taught me this. “Management is the noblest profession when practiced correctly,” says Tong. “Our students, the leaders of the future, have the opportunity to not only build great businesses and succeed for themselves and their families, but also to change the lives of so many people for the better. .”
answer the phone
Tong’s first book, The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Low Costs and Boost Profit, published in 2014, describes what she calls the “vicious cycle.” She minimizes wages and benefits for her employees. This approach leads to poor working conditions, low morale, high turnover, and reduced productivity.
The book resonated with many business leaders, who contacted Mr. Tong for help. At first, Tong refused. She had a full-time job at her MIT and had four children. But one night she was having dinner with Roger Martin, the former dean of the Rotman School of Business, and she said that earlier in the day she had declined to work with the legendary CEO. talked.
“He said, ‘That’s the worst thing to say, because if you want to change things, you have to figure out how to help,'” Tong recalls. “‘If you help me, I’ll do it.’ I said.”
The two founded the Good Jobs Institute in 2017 with Sarah Kalloch, who took Tong’s class and earned her MBA in 2016, and has since served as the institute’s executive director. The team decided to organize the Good Jobs Institute as a nonprofit organization to make it easier to reach out to others in the field and stay focused on its mission.
“It just seemed like the right thing to do,” says Tong, who doesn’t earn any money from her lab work. “GJI has become a laboratory for me to learn how to apply my academic research to real life and improve the lives of low-wage workers in a way that helps businesses.”
Ultimately, the team settled on hosting workshops and roadmap sessions to help businesses. Currently, Good Jobs Institute’s process for working with companies varies depending on the size and type of company, but typically begins with his two-day kickoff workshop for company executives and front-line managers. Masu.
The workshop begins with a discussion about vicious cycles, allowing leaders to articulate how the current situation is negatively impacting customers and competitive position. The workshop then uses the Good Jobs Framework. This framework consists of his four operating pillars: focus and simplify, standardize and empower, cross-train, and operate with margin. Combine this with investing in people to help leaders imagine how alternative systems might work. Drive better work and customer value. Next, company representatives begin discussing why a strategy for success is needed and identify specific changes that need to be made to the organization to adopt that strategy. The workshop concludes with a review of case studies of other organizations that have successfully implemented the strategy.
““At the end of the workshop, there is an urgent need for change among leaders and some alignment on the types of changes needed to get there,” says Tong. “And we work with businesses to understand why they need to improve their front-line operations, who needs to be involved and what changes need to be made first. We will help you clarify.”
Tong said much of the institute’s work is about stressing to companies that strategy is a system, and personal changes such as pay increases don’t work in isolation.
“The whole idea of the Good Jobs Strategy is to invest in your people and make choices that make them more productive at work and enable them to contribute more,” Tong explains. “If we don’t change the design of work, investments in talent are unlikely to pay off.”
make good work mainstream
The Good Jobs Institute has worked with dozens of businesses, including owners of convenience stores, retail stores, call centers, restaurants, exterminators, and more. Companies that have implemented this system report significant reductions in employee turnover, ranging from 25% to 52%, and significant increases in productivity and sales.
Tong thinks it’s no surprise that empowering workers who are struggling to make a living is effective. In fact, she believes most people underestimate the impact a small pay raise can have on the physical and mental health of low-wage workers.
Mr. Tong’s confidence grew as he listened to feedback from the companies he worked with. Former student Michael Ross, MBA ’20, SM ’20, came to Tong’s class to discuss his experience implementing Good Jobs strategies at the pest control company he led.
“He talked about his earlier time in the Marines and how he had a deep sense of purpose. He then went to work for a private equity firm, but he missed that purpose and missed making a difference. And now his purpose is to spread the good work,” Tong said.
Ross’s story is not unique. Employees at restaurants using the Good Jobs Strategy told owners that for the first time, the strategy enabled them to buy back-to-school clothes for their children from somewhere other than Goodwill.
“On a personal level, this change has been very meaningful for many of the company leaders we have worked with,” says Tong. “One person, [Moe’s Original BBQ franchisee] Dewey Hasbrouck said this became his “why?”
Last year, Tong wrote a book called “The Case for Good Jobs,” which summarizes what he learned from working with companies. The Good Jobs Institute said it is currently working on a more scalable workshop model to make the approach more widespread. Quickly.
“There are still a lot of people who don’t earn enough money,” Tong said. “We still don’t respect enough the work of our front-line workers, from factories to retail stores to healthcare settings. That’s one reason people get fed up and look for other opportunities. That’s what we’re trying to change.”
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