April 11, 2012, NAPERVILLE, Ill. – Human Resource leaders are facing daunting challenges these days – especially in the face of an improving economy, and with surveys revealing that 60 percent of employees plan to leave their current employer within a year, and another 21 percent actively taking steps to leave. A new research summary produced by the business thought leadership organization, The Forum: Business Results Through People, suggests that there are clear ways to not only reduce turnover, but to attract critical talent and become an employer of choice.

The executive report, “Employee Engagement, Customer Satisfaction & Profitability,” is the first in a new series of targeted and concise research packages designed for HR executives. Its author, Dr. James Oakley of Purdue University, says that “organizations with satisfied and engaged employees have customers who use their products more, and increased customer usage leads to higher levels of customer satisfaction.” Dr. Oakley adds that “it is an organization’s employees who influence the behavior and attitudes of customers, even when those employees don’t have direct customer contact.”

The research summary provides HR leaders with several ideas for applying Dr. Oakley’s research to their specific business, including “making the case that engaged employees directly impact corporate, sales, and marketing objectives for building customer loyalty and brand strength.” In addition, the summary examines the importance of improved communications and recognition and incentive programs as ways to improve employee engagement. According to the latest 2011 Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement research report by the Society of Human Resource Management, employees were only “moderately engaged,” with a score of 3.6 on a 5-point scale.

To read the entire research summary, please visit The Forum’s website, www.businessresultsthroughpeople.org and click on the Research tab.

About the Forum
The Forum (www.BusinessResultsThroughPeople.org), affiliated with Northwestern University, is an organization for thought leadership advocating the most effective way business leaders create and sustain organizational value is through partnership with people.
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CONTACTS:
Sue Voyles - 734.667.2005 sue@logos-communications.com
Susan Peterson – 630.369.7780 Sue@BusinessResultsThroughPeople.org

About the Forum
The Forum (www.BusinessResultsThroughPeople.org), affiliated with Northwestern University, is an organization for thought leadership advocating the most effective way business leaders create and sustain organizational value is through partnership with people.

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This release was published on openPR.