CHAPTER ONE CENTERING EMPLOYEE VOICES

For too long, too many workplaces have thought of employees as an input: insert workers and out come product and profits. A Win-Win workplace treats employees as investments: treat employees well and reap bigger profits. It’s a simple shift, but a radical one. It starts with centering employee voices, eliciting their perspectives, and factoring their concerns and ideas into company decision-making. This is the central pillar of the Win-Win workplace, from which all improvements emerge.

Large firms spend thousands of dollars a year for every companywide survey that they administer. In fact, some of the largest corporations have entire teams dedicated to “people analytics,” collecting massive amounts of data that, in theory, should help these organizations improve employee satisfaction and reduce turnover. Indeed, employers are gathering more feedback from their workers than ever—whether through a vintage suggestion box in the employee lunchroom, 360-degree reviews (comprehensive individual performance evaluations by supervisors, peers, and subordinates), or Net Promoter Score, which is a measure of customer loyalty and satisfaction. So, the really vexing question is: With so much employee feedback being gathered, why are they still not feeling heard? Workers in 2024 were the most unhappy they’ve been since they were in the throes of pandemic shutdowns.1 And employee satisfaction with their employers is among the lowest rates on record. A 2022 Gallup poll revealed that 76 percent of workers believe that their bosses don’t care about their well-being.2 That’s the transactional model of the Zero-Sum workplace rearing its head. Our goal in a Win-Win workplace is to do more than gather employee feedback. We want to take action with that feedback, giving workers a real voice and tangible influence over the workplace conditions that are most important to them. Our goal is to foster healthier companies—more equitable, sustainable, and profitable companies.

Any strategy for creating a Win-Win workplace, if it is to be effective, requires employers to analyze their business’s value chain and ensure that the whole employee—their feedback, their input, their lived experience and realities plus the business expertise they’ve accrued from their frontline jobs—is represented in all areas of the value chain. To help do this, there is an emergent specialty within data science called people analytics. The work that firms are undertaking with generative artificial intelligence (AI) to make sense of their data promises vital insights into developing smart solutions and programming that better serve both employees and the organizational bottom line. Throughout this book, I will offer ideas on how to leverage this technology in the building of our Win-Win workplace pillars.

I am not saying that everything employees assert in feedback must be followed to the letter. What I am saying is that it’s essential to acknowledge workers at all levels as valuable sources of critical data, insights on innovation, and opportunities for efficiency. Their experiences at work and outside of the workplace can impact the bottom line. In 2024, research from Gallup found a connection between strong employee engagement and positive business results. These results include a 23 percent increase in profitability, 18 percent increase in productivity, 10 percent increase in customer loyalty and engagement, and reduced turnover.3 It’s a simple Win-Win: when employees are engaged, they help their businesses thrive.

No one is more passionately certain of this than Pete Stavros, an innovator in business organization who has proven the efficacy of centering employee voices (pillar one of the Win-Win workplace) at a little-known garage door manufacturer in Arthur, Illinois.

The KKR case study provides real-world examples of strategies that embrace the cyclical Win-Win process of change and lead to a Win-Win workplace:

• • Committing to Win-Win working relationships and understanding employee concerns: Pete Stavros’s childhood experiences shaped his desire to improve the employer-employee dynamic. He recognized the negative impact of workers feeling undervalued. What are ways to get more proximate with your employees? Do your managers have the lived experience to relate not only to your customers but also to your employees—their staff?
• • Distributing leadership via entrepreneurial structures: KKR transformed C.H.I. employees into owners, aligning employee and company goals. This fostered a sense of shared responsibility. We will explore more structures like this in Chapter Nine.
• • Reimagining employee benefits and investing in employee ideas: KKR allocated $1 million for employee-selected improvements, demonstrating commitment to their voices.
• • Open communication channels: KKR established systems for employees to propose ideas for mitigating financial and environmental costs, like reducing scrap metal waste and improving delivery routes.
• • Embracing transparency about human capital and measuring success: KKR’s aim was to have every worker’s buy-in on the company’s five-to-seven-year goals. That meant, in part, clearly communicating how individual roles contributed to the goal and identifying any skill gaps that needed to be addressed through training or development programs. This ensured each employee understood their unique role in achieving the company’s vision. The company’s profit margins and revenue increased significantly, highlighting the positive impact of centering employee voices.

Overall, these steps promote a culture of radical openness where employee feedback is actively sought, valued, and acted upon. It’s not just a feel-good practice; it’s a strategic imperative. In the most effective organizations these steps form a continuous cycle of improvement that allows the organization to unlock a wealth of untapped potential and build a more equitable future of work, where employee well-being and company success go hand in hand.

Now that we’ve learned about the importance of centering employee well-being, let’s shift our focus to Chapter Two and committing to Win-Win working relationships.