...enlightening--engaged employees and companies cited for their best practices. Moreover, customers are satisfied. This author describes a model for putting employees first.

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Steady, long-term competitiveness requires an organization to be committed to putting employees first and developing quality training programs that are linked to its strategic objectives. Without a true commitment to the employees at all levels throughout an organization, the journey to enhance organizational performance will be an elusive adventure. Quality employees equate to organizational success. Unqualified and poorly trained employees equate to organizational failure.

Allocating adequate organizational resources to achieve an effective training environment has been a budgetary and operational challenge that has eluded many organizational decision-makers, primarily because they do not realize that training is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to enhancing employee performance. Lurking beneath the issue of training is the commitment that an organization makes to its employees as reflected by the HR policies that management has established. In a recent Wall Street Journal, article it was reported that despite the claims from a majority of executives that their organizations treat employees with respect and offer fair pay for the tasks performed, the evidence tends to indicate that most organizations do not practice what is preached.

The disconnection between what is stated and what is done can partially be traced to a marketing philosophy that began to dominate management theory after the production, product, and selling concepts faded in popularity. At the center of this philosophy is the notion that the customer should be the focus of all organizational activities and planning. Although the emphasis on the customer appears to be a logical premise for building organizational success, it is quite misleading. The deception begins with the fact that many organizations simply do not know who their customers are. For example, at a college or university, who is the customer--high school graduates, adults returning to college, graduate students, foreign exchange students, or individuals seeking a vocational trade? What is the socio-economic and demographic data associated with these classifications of students? Who is the customer for a retailer like Walmart? Is it the person who drives a Mercedes to Walmart in order to purchase everyday items at lower prices or it is the individual who uses public transportation to arrive at the store? A customer who can not be specifically identified in every detail is an...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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