Risk & Business Magazine California Risk & Business Magazine Summer 2017 | Page 7

ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT accountability, communication, and teamwork that influence and motivate employees to duplicate their leader’s intentions. According to Forbes, employee development planning is more essential to job performance than directing the work and is the number one reason for employee retention. THE BENEFIT OF ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT What is the value of a healthy, high- performing organization? The top two reasons people stay or leave a company is not money but leadership and opportunity. People rally behind good leadership and meaningful work, regardless of pay. And the challenges of retaining today’s workers have elevated the demand for OD practitioners. 4. Customer Retention: Overall, over 80 percent of customers leave a business due to poor experience. And yet, 85 percent are willing to pay more for superior service. Certainly, the cost of retaining a customer is far less than the cost of onboarding a new one. When employee development flourishes in any organization, the net result will be satisfied customers who become raving fans that not only return for more but also recommend to others in their sphere of influence to take advantage of your organization’s product or service. The measurement of success and ROI achieved through OD varies for each organization, including such factors as the cost of employee turnover, the value of increasing performance, and the benefit of creating a culture of trust, loyalty, and common language. While organizations can experience impressive returns on investment, there are certain benefits that should be expected and ongoing: 5. Increased Profit: The complete OD process will always affect the bottom line of the company in a variety of positive ways. Whenever innovation, productivity, and efficiencies are increased, an increase in profit will result. Whenever employee turnover and customer attrition is reduced, the cost of doing business will also decrease, which will add to your bottom line. 1. Organization Improvement: Organization improvement becomes a continuous cycle whereby strategies are planned, implemented, evaluated, and renewed, and performance aligns to purpose. 2. Communication: Improved communication between employees and leadership assures common language, feedback, and interaction within the organization, which also reduces conflict. 3. Employee Development and Retention: Due to constant industry and market changes, there is always a need for employee development. OD focuses on both performance management of the work and “soft” skills such as If your organization appears to be in decline or languishing with challenges and performance, or if you are committed to having your organization thrive in a culture of efficiency and effectiveness, an Organization Development practitioner is the key to blowing open the doors of success that you aspire to and can achieve. + Ken Sergi is the CEO and Principal of Sergi Consulting and Coaching, Inc, a Organization Development (“OD”) consul ting, training and certified business coaching firm with more than 25 years of experience transforming companies and people worldwide into high performing healthy organizations. www.SergiConsulting.com • [phone] • [email protected] BY: KEN SERGI, CEO & PRINCIPAL OF SERGI CONSULTING AND COACHING 7