E62-379
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
Strategy
Employer Advantages
Why do some companies choose to invest in creating good jobs for their employees? There is no single answer, and companies that adopt such a strategy may seek a range of payoffs—from lower turnover to higher productivity.
From its beginning in 1991, the founders of Fort Collins, CO-based New Belgium Brewing envisioned building a world-class beer brand while minimizing the company's environmental footprint. To accomplish that and other ambitions, they built a culture based on a decentralized, highly motivated, and self-directed workforce—especially among production employees.
In 2005, Good Samaritan, a nonprofit hospital in West Islip, NY, was in a full-blown crisis. Vacancies for registered nurses (RNs) were exceeding 15%, threatening the hospital's reputation for high quality of care and forcing management to hire expensive foreign nurses. So the hospital made a deal with a local community college to expand its nursing program and paid for its own cadre of licensed practical nurses to get their RN degrees. Within six years, the program was so successful in filling staff vacancies that the hospital discontinued the program.
