What Does Shared Value Management Mean for Your Employees?

Creating shared value is a new management strategy being embraced by many organizations in corporate America.  According to an article in the Harvard Business Review“Shared value is not social responsibility, philanthropy, or sustainability, but a new way for companies to achieve economic success.” By identifying solutions to social problems that will benefit a company, shared value is created, making this management strategy a win-win for all involved.

For instance, Novartis, a global healthcare company, have identified customers in the Niger Delta without access to healthcare and have created a variety of affordable medicines for the health issues facing the region. By identifying a solution to a social problem, Novartis is creating shared value. The customers win with access to affordable medication and Novartis wins by expanding their market and increasing sales.

Another example is Nestle; food giant who has turned to shared value as one of their growth initiatives. Nestle is focusing on three key areas: nutrition, people and environmental sustainability. By creating specific commitments to address these three areas, Nestle is creating shared value for communities across the globe and growth as a corporation.

The central premise behind creating shared value is that the competitiveness of a company and the health of the communities around it are mutually dependent. However, this principal should also extend to the employee community and the culture that is embraced within an organization.

Creating a positive work culture that includes work-life balance is a way organizations can create shared value with their employees, while also increasing ROI. Many companies have not yet made the employee experience a priority and are experiencing the negative results which include low employee engagement and high turnover rates. By establishing a culture of work-life balance, your employees will be happier, stay with the company longer and have a higher engagement rateA study by the Corporate Executive Board found that employees who believed they had good work-life balance were 21% more productive than those that didn’t.

Ways to support a culture of work/life balance include:

  • ·       Flexible work hours
  • ·       Work from home options
  • ·       Child/Pet Care options

However, one of the most important issues we recommend in creating work-life balance involves, setting boundaries. Even though we now have 24/7 access to email and text, through the use of smartphones, it’s important that employees not be inundated with communications after work hours.

This is one of the behavior shifts we teach in our Take Back Your Life! training. Learning to not “live” in your email but to manage it more effectively is important to high performance and work-life balance. In addition, we advocate for allocating time on one’s personal calendar for each priority activity, to avoid getting distracted from the projects that will provide the most impact for your department and/or organization. Another key factor is empowering employees to say “no” when delivery timelines are not realistic. By embracing a culture that supports boundaries, staff empowerment and well-being, companies can reap the benefits of the ultimate shared value, a win-win for everyone.

Learn more about McGhee Productivity Solutions and our various offerings that can positively impact cultural and behavioral shifts for the better. We specialize in providing behavior change models that get results within large global organizations.