"The Drivers of Employee Commitment: Tools for Creating a
Competitive Workplace"
Charles S. Rodgers
Work/Family Directions, Inc., January 1998.
Not available online.
This study offers a strategy for running a successful business that includes
positive people practices and suggests two metrics for measuring commitment
and for predicting business results (such as anticipated turnover) based
on the commitment index. The article asserts the link between people practices
and business performance and summarizes the following research findings
from other studies: employee commitment is associated with job performance;
employee loyalty is related to customer loyalty, which relates to growth
and profits; employee attitudes drive both customer satisfaction and revenue;
employee retention is a key driver of customer retention, which drives growth
and profits. The two measurement instruments were developed by different
researchers and were tested on a sampling of over 50,000 employees in a
wide range of work environments. The business model focuses on three levels.
The most important is the "commitment drivers": communication,
diversity and inclusion, job satisfaction, flexibility, management effectiveness,
work-life support, and career advancement. The other two levels are the
“enablers”: rewards tied to contribution and skill acquisition
& development; and then the “threshold factors”: reasonable
compensation and benefits, safety, and necessary tools. The metrics provide
potentially useful tools for businesses interested in tracking employee
commitment and making business outcome predictions based on the results.
