Zeynep Ton

Is it possible to create great value for customers and employees while keeping investors happy at the same time? It may seem counterintuitive, but MIT professor Zeynep Ton, Ph.D., has found that by putting customers at the center of every decision an organization makes, the frontline workers naturally become a part of that decision as well. Pointing to low-cost retailers like Costco and QuikTrip to luxury hotel chains like Four Seasons, Ton illustrates how organizations can deploy her “Good Jobs” model to win with their customers. A veteran executive educator who is also the co-founder of the Good Jobs Institute, she deftly demonstrates the difference between being customer- and financial-centric and delivers vivid examples of how to focus on real value for all stakeholders, instead of simply driving sales. By implementing Ton’s framework and adopting a customer-focused mindset, leaders will see their employees contribute more meaningfully, produce more and ultimately find a better sense of well-being.

Many employers spend the equivalent of 10 to 25% of their labor budget on replacement costs — the costs to recruit, train and reach baseline productivity — only to start all over again when employees leave, according to new research by Zeynep Ton’s Good Jobs Institute. Organizations are then forced to find more ways to cut costs to account for what should have been avoidable in the first place. There’s another way, and companies can change, says Ton. As she describes in her book, “The Case for Good Jobs,” large-scale industry leaders like Quest Diagnostics, Mud Bay and Sam’s Club adopted her “Good Jobs” model, which improved pay and schedules, created more valuable work for employees and redesigned their system for better operations and service. The results? Significant reductions in employee turnover, higher sales and improved productivity. Always encouraging, Ton’s recommendations reveal a path to successful systemic change and growth for the organizations and the people within them.

In any organization, management must answer to investors and when profits go down, stress goes up and layoffs can be on the horizon. While it may sound counterintuitive, Zeynep Ton’s Good Jobs Strategy is an antidote to investor worry and organizational dysfunction. In this presentation, Ton outlines the many ways her Good Jobs Strategy creates a three-way win for employees, customers and investors.

Despite an array of examples proving that “good jobs” — roles with higher pay, stable schedules and advancement opportunities — can enhance competitiveness and resilience, many leaders, particularly in retail and other low-margin service sectors, still cling to the idea that low-paying, unstable jobs are a necessity for survival. Some want to get out, but feel trapped in a system of high turnover and poor performance. Challenging this perspective is MIT professor Zeynep Ton, Ph.D., whose  “Good Jobs” model unravels the obstacles inhibiting companies from adopting a better approach. Exposing the misperceptions about the value of front-line workers and the role they play in operational success, Ton emphasizes that investing in employees, empowering them and enabling them to serve customers better can fuel a virtuous cycle of high customer satisfaction, superior productivity, low employee turnover, increased resilience and bottom-line growth. Even more provocatively, she challenges the idea that system change is risky. She demonstrates how to de-risk system change and provides numerous examples of companies—big and small, public and private, competing on low cost and differentiation—that adopted the good jobs system to escape their vicious cycle and improve productivity and competitiveness.  Equipped with a full framework of recommendations and tools for leaders, Ton offers a fresh lens through which to view and value employees, fostering sustainable success in the face of a competitive business landscape.

In many economies, service sectors such as retail and restaurants account for a growing proportion of jobs that pay low wages while offering unpredictable schedules and few opportunities for success and growth. The pandemic has taken that problem to another level. In this presentation, Zeynep Ton, Ph.D., outlines ways to optimize what she calls the Good Jobs Strategy across operations so employees feel empowered and satisfied, customers are happier, managers are more organized and profits increase. Drawing on more 15 years of research, Ton shows that a human-centered operations strategy is not only possible but highly profitable, even in low-wage service settings.

Most jobs in retail and service sectors pay low wages while offering unpredictable schedules and few opportunities for success and growth. To create a good jobs economy, we need to transform these “bad jobs” into “good jobs.”  In this presentation, Zeynep Ton, Ph.D., will make the compelling case that improving those jobs will require companies to operate differently. They need to evolve from seeing people as interchangeable parts to designing human-centered operations strategies.

A lot of managers are so caught up in keeping the day-to-day machinery running they are unable to address problems – or they struggle to see them all together. Meanwhile, profits are decreasing, investors are on edge, employee turnover is high and customers are not happy. This results in a vicious cycle of disconnection and chaos. In this presentation, Zeynep Ton, Ph.D., explains how the Good Jobs Strategy (GJS) breaks this cycle and teaches leaders how to leverage it so investors, customers and employees are satisfied. She also outlines ways her GJS helps companies become more agile, adaptable and responsive when faced with disruption and uncertainty.