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Companies can improve performance by optimizing employee and customer engagement -- even in this sluggish economy
October 06, 2009
Cost curtailment and downsizing aren’t the only approaches to remaining viable in this relentlessly sluggish economy, according to Gallup research. Companies can focus on optimizing the human element of their business by engaging their staff and customers, says the coauthor of Human Sigma.
“Think globally, act locally.” Microbiologist Rene Dubos’ famous quote applies directly to Gallup’s HumanSigma science: A business can achieve consistent performance improvement and sustainable growth when it focuses its energy on managing the employee-customer interactions at the local level.
Emotion frames the employee-customer encounter. This is the second rule of HumanSigma management, and Alegent Health applied it to create a culture that emotionally engages its employees and customers. The result has been greater performance in the metrics that matter most.
All companies do things like pay close attention to standard business measures and train their employees. But this luxury brand watches things that most companies ignore, then uses what it learns to create ongoing, top-to-bottom learning.
