This visionary organization is not alone in this endeavor. A contemporary fairy story from Fortune tells the tale:[xli]
“Once upon a time, in the profit-minded kingdom of Corporate America, an anonymous copywriter came up with a slogan that fast became the phrase of the land. It read, simply: “People are our most important asset.” Companies loved it. Soon the line appeared in annual reports everywhere. The only problem was, companies didn’t really value their employees that much. The slogan, says Jerome M. Rosow, president of Work in America Institute, ‘was pure bull.’
Then one day foreigners invaded the kingdom. These international companies were flexible, quick, and responsive to customers. Searching for ways to compete with the invaders, a few American companies discovered that, given a little freedom and the proper training, workers could do things that machines could not. People could grow, invent, solve problems. The kingdom was rocked by a new thought: that people truly are its most important asset.”
This revelation has led to a human resources revolution. Corporate training programs are proliferating as companies seek to help workers adapt to rapidly changing technology and work processes. Personnel departments are scrambling to create improved benefit programs to attract and retain the best people. And finally, to make sure the next generation of workers is as well educated as possible, companies are forming partnerships with schools and colleges.
Investment in Education
Of the 100 American companies that were rated in 1999 as the best to work in, virtually all “are making major investments in employee education at multimillion-dollar facilities and through generous tuition-reimbursement programs. On average, the 100 Best lavished 43 hours of training on each employee in 1998—that’s almost a full day more than last year [the 1998 survey.] “[xlii] Furthermore, virtually all of the companies offer some form of career development to enhance and support the education their employees are receiving. 81 of the 100 companies offer career counseling, while 60 offer some form of employee mentoring. Seventeen of the companies offer paid and 31 offer unpaid educational sabbaticals, while 33 provide 100% reimbursement of tuition for the outside educational programs their employees attend.[xliii]
These lessons are not lost on the public and nonprofit sectors of our society—though these organizations typically have fewer resources to devote to training and education, and often, ironically, find more resistance among their own employees than is the case in most corporations. A troubled city government, for instance, tries to inspire a commitment to the welfare of its own employees:
“Each employee was to interact with fellow employees as if each employee was the citizen. the idea was to cultivate values of fairness, honesty, and respect . . . Emphasis was centered on nurturing results as a function of intrinsic rewards rather than the typical bureaucratic extrinsic rewards around salary and a punched time clock.
This motivating factor is one of the most postmodern symptoms observed within the city bureaucracy. It is particularly interesting to watch the growth of this principle incorporate itself into the fabric of the culture that is service based and not motivated by the almighty dollar.”
