You might be thinking “I don’t need to read this; my company’s performance is not mediocre.” If so, let me ask you a question, “Will you be satisfied with your company’s performance if it continues to stay exactly where it is for the next ten years?” If you answered “yes” to that question, stop reading this paper. However, if you would like to see your company continue to grow and increase in profitability, keep reading.

In order to “bridge the gap” between where your company is now and where you would like it to be you must first have a goal. Why? How will you know the path to take if you don’t know where you are going? This goal should be as specific as possible. The reason it is important to be specific when setting goals is that research shows it increases our chances of reaching them.

Company A was the best of companies; Company B was the worst of companies. Both Company A and Company B recently conducted employee engagement surveys. These surveys enabled executives at each business to put their fingers on the pulse of their companies. Employee surveys are critical to business success. Research has shown repeatedly that the attitudes and behaviors of employees influence the attitudes and behaviors of customers. Executives from each company received two very different reports at the completion of the surveys.

Conducting customer surveys is a common business practice. Within the last two weeks alone, I have been asked to complete at least five customer surveys.

Q: Why is surveying customers such a common practice?

A: Because of the belief that customer surveys pay off with increased profits.

Is this belief correct or is the practice of surveying customers one that simply gives companies a false sense of empowerment? Social scientists all over the world have conducted much research across a broad range of industries (including e-businesses) in order to answer this question.

Why aren’t your employees as happy as they were a few years ago?

The economy can certainly explain why many employees are feeling a bit jittery on the job. Gasoline prices are leaving Americans light-headed, food prices are causing cases of sticker shock, home prices are falling at the fastest rate in 30 years, and a credit crisis is rattling Wall Street.