THE EDUCATED RETAILERS' GUIDE
EXPANDING the Job
Description
Tapping into employee skills beyond those of their core duties can dramatically increase staff loyalty and satisfaction. Ari Weinzweig explains the One + One philosophy.
BY ARI WEINZWEIG W
ould you be interested if I told you I had an inexpensive, ethically oriented idea that would reduce turn- over, improve staff satisfaction and build bonds across all parts of your business? Of course you would. At Zingerman's we call this innovation "One + One," and it's worked for us for a long time.
I began to appreciate the idea years ago when I read the article, "Employee Engagement: Beyond the Fad and Into the
Executive Suite," by Theresa Welbourne, Ph.D., then a professor at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. The piece appeared in the Drucker Foundation's journal, Leader to Leader. Welbourne's whole article was helpful as it shared how-to tips on getting staff more engaged in an organization. But one
particular insight in her essay struck me—and stuck with me—more than any other: "Employee engagement improves when employees are successful in both the core job and the non-core roles."
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