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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHigher Wages Are Good for Companies Too
Jessica Weisberg
Barbara Gertz is 25 and works at a Walmart in Aurora, Colorado, stocking shelves on the overnight shift. She and her husband, a cement mason, can get by most months, but there have been days Barbara has called in sick because she cant afford the gas to drive to work.
Higher wages would obviously benefit Barbara and her colleagues at Walmart who protested last Friday. They would also benefit fast food workers striking tomorrow in 100 cities across the country who earn, on average, $11,000 a year.
But according to Zeynep Ton, an adjunct professor at MIT Sloan School of Management, higher wages are better for companies, too.
Tons book, The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs and Boost Profits, comes out in January and in it, she describes how large retail companies like Mercadona, Trader Joes and Costco have been able to invest in workers without raising prices. These companies think about employees not as costs to minimize but as capable human beings with the potential to generate sales and profits, Ton recently wrote on her blog. Doesnt all this cost a lot? Of course it does. But thats only part of the strategy. These companies also design and manage work in a way that makes their employees more productive and takes full advantage of a committed, motivated, and capable (that is, well-paid, well-trained, and well-treated) workforce.
Heres one of Tons favorite examples of why the so-called Good Jobs Strategy works: During the recession, both Walmart and Mercadona, Spains largest supermarket chain, had to cut costs and did so by reducing the variety of products they carried. Walmart customers were annoyed when their local store stopped carrying their favorite brand of potato chip, or toilet paper or T-shirt. Sales dropped; Walmarts chief merchandising officer had to leave the company. At Mercadona, customers were unfazed if an item they wanted was out of stock because workers, who as a matter of company policy are trained in every department, were able to recommend a replacement. Sales figures increased, even after Mercadona reduced its prices by 10 percent. Workers would let management know if there was a particular product that too many customers seemed to miss. They could do this because they are empowered, cross-trained and have the time to engage the customer, Ton writes. By comparison, Barbara told me that theres just a total lack of respect for associates at Walmart. She mentioned a friend who politely pointed out an inventory problem to her supervisor and was fired the next day for the very mistake she tried to correct.
more
http://www.thenation.com/blog/177468/higher-wages-are-good-companies-too#
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)It's an advocacy piece (in support of workers) that just doesn't complain about what is wrong; but provides concrete examples for how to make it right.
Could you just imagine the response if the walmart heads bought (and read) the book and applied the principles contained in it? They would be the darlings of the retail world ... and because of their size, they would change the retail model world-wide!
But the Walton family think (despite the evidence) they would experience a 10% decrease in their money ... so it won't happen.
n2doc
(47,953 posts)Because the company would become more efficient, have lower turnover and training costs, and better cater to its customers. But the Waltons and Walmart management would never do it because it would be heresy to their religion- the republican god of Rushbo.