In our last post, we discussed the approach that one business, Nypro, takes to investing in its workforce.
A just-released business brief from the National Network for Sector Partners talks about the benefits of making these investments. Through case studies and interviews, the brief makes the case that training and advancing lower-wage workers has top and bottom line benefits–increasing revenues while decreasing expenses for businesses who make these investments.
According to the brief, which features several Massachusetts employers, including Visiting Nurses Association of Eastern Massachusetts; Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates; and Chelsea Jewish Nursing Home, employers around the country that are building their bottom line by unlocking the potential of their lower-wage workforce.
Are you an employer interested in learning more? Five fundamentals common to all employers interested in developing their lower wage workforces include:
- One or more influential internal champions to promote the value of the initiative
- An able and willing workforce, ready to take advantage of the training opportunities offered
- An evidence-based business case for sustaining and improving the program
- The ability and willingness to offer support to workers while they are in training
- Dedicated, skilled management of the program
The overriding lesson is that employers who treat their basic-skill workforce as a durable asset — as a locus of quality and a source of steadily increasing skill and performance — find that their business is materially better for their effort. These are some of the returns they describe:
- Revenues improve as quality and customer satisfaction rises.
- Costs go down as errors, corrections, and vacancies diminish.
- Employee teams become more productive and cohesive.
- Less time is lost on supervisory interventions, customer complaints, and re-working.
- The costs of excessive turnover — especially vacancies, recruitment, and re-training— all drop sharply.
- The company’s reputation improves among both customers and potential employees.
- The company becomes a magnet for the most motivated and productive workers.
SkillWorks 