September 1, 2002
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Northwestern implements
“People Performance” program
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People Performance programs target different stakeholders including salespeople, customers, operations, customer service personnel, resellers, etc., motivating people to focus on what they can do to maximize customer satisfaction, build long-term relationships, and thus achieve corporate goals.
By deploying multiple People Performance Management activities in tandem, companies have demonstrated the benefit in the form of appreciable returns on their investments. For example, studies suggest that a 5% increase in employee retention can generate a 25% to 85% increase in profitability. (“Putting the Service-Profit Chain to Work,” Heskett, James L., Jones, Thomas O., Loveman, Gary W., Sasser, W. Earl, and Schlesinger, Leonard A., Harvard Business Review, March/April 1994.)
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Northwestern University has become the first institution to incorporate the discipline of People Performance Management into its graduate studies program by launching the Forum for People Performance Management and Measurement. The Forum’s mission is to identify, measure and develop marketing and management techniques to increase the financial impact of enhanced people performance.
A unit within the Medill School of Journalism’s Integrated Marketing Communications Department, the Forum is dedicated to the development of research and education in the field of People Performance Management. The program encompasses diverse business strategies and activities which are designed to increase profit margins and marketing effectiveness by maximizing employee performance and influencing customer satisfaction and behavior.
People Performance Management does not replace existing internal and external management and marketing strategies, but rather integrates them strategically so both companies and customers realize improved relationships and increased benefits and profits.
“This is effectively the launch of a new discipline, one we believe should be formally recognized by the academic community,” says Don Schultz, Professor Emeritus-in-Service in the IMC program, “The focus in business and marketing today needs to be on people, customers and the employees who service the customer. Unfortunately, this variable—the `personal touch’— has often been neglected during the past two decades in our rush to find technological solutions to business problems.”
The Forum will initiate and sponsor research that substantiates the link between long-term financial success and motivated customers and employees. It will also serve as a clearinghouse for other People Performance Management research. Conferences, papers and textbooks will be the foundation to communicate the findings to both the academic and business communities. PR
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