Here is a novel idea many employers might want to begin implementing: start treating your employees like customers. Why? Because it can save money.
I recently came across this article explaining how Genentech has begun developing apps to help make its sales force more productive. One problem area identified by the company was that sales personnel were often taking more than a week to record their sales call visits to doctors.
As someone who despises paperwork, I can relate to why it might take a salesperson so long to record this information. By making an intuitive, easy-to-use app, however, Genentech alleviated a major hassle for its sales force and, in the process, was able to increase its profits.
The bottomline doesn't always have to only be about the company's bottomline. If more companies would start treating their employees as customers and providing them better tools to do their job they are likely to find that their increased profits more than exceed the cost of developing and implementing many of these new tools.
