Developing a Blueprint for Changing Companies and Lives: A Ten-Step Plan for Improving Working Conditions for All--and Boosting Your Company's Profitability

By: Jody Heymann

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Synopsis: It's becoming apparent that companies that invest in and improve the quality of life for those at the bottom of the corporate ladder can increase the quality, quantity, and value of their products and services by doing so. Companies that invest in their low-level employees see short-term gains like increased productivity, as well as long-term gains like having built a loyal and educated workforce. This chapter summarizes the authors' fifteen years of research on policies and programs implemented at hundreds of companies from around the world that were designed to improve conditions for the lowest-level employees, providing a definitive blueprint for effective change. The plan includes ten important steps: five ways in which corporate leaders need to adapt their strategic approaches, and five practical steps firms should take right now to improve conditions-and increase company profits. This chapter also examines some of the barriers to change, like the challenges public companies face in implementing compensation restructuring, and the need for governments to take a more direct role in childcare. This chapter was originally published as Chapter 10 of "Profit at the Bottom of the Ladder: Creating Value by Investing in Your Workforce."