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The Employee Advantage
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The Employee Advantage

How Putting Workers First Helps Business Thrive

Stephan Meier
Public Affairs, 2024
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Your customers are vital to your company’s success, but business professor Stephan Meier argues that your employees are even more essential. In this engaging guide, Meier reveals why putting workers first is a game-changing strategy for organizational growth. By providing workers with a sense of purpose, autonomy, and personalized support, businesses can unlock untapped potential and drive performance to new heights. Drawing on behavioral science and real-world examples, Meier demonstrates how investing in the human side of work leads to happier employees and stronger bottom lines.

Summary

The COVID-19 pandemic shifted workplace dynamics and sparked a cultural reevaluation of work’s role in people’s lives.

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed businesses to prioritize customer-centric strategies, which included increased digitization and more personalized services. While these changes benefited customers, they came at a cost to employees. Many saw increased workloads without increased compensation, leading to widespread worker dissatisfaction. Employees expressed this unhappiness in various forms, such as the trend of “quiet quitting” — doing just the bare minimum to stay employed — and the broader “Great Resignation” — opting to leave their jobs. These developments exemplified a more profound cultural reassessment of work-life balance. Today, employees across all generations expect more meaningful, flexible work that aligns with their personal values.

Companies that want happy employees should take a cue from how they treat their customers and personalize the employee experience. Just as businesses use data to understand customer needs, organizations should analyze what drives their employees...

About the Author

Stephan Meier is the James P. Gorman Professor of Business Strategy and the chair of the Management Division at Columbia Business School (CBS).

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