The head of Waitrose, Mark Price, has said that retailers must engage and invest in employees in order to create a “smart society”.
At the Telegraph Festival of Business 2015, Mr Price said that companies putting shareholders before employees and customers had resulted in a lack of trust in businesses.
He added that partnership models, such as the one used by the John Lewis group, make a company “not just be a little more decent, but more successful too.” He added that, according to performance management consultancy Gallup, engaged employees increase productivity by 20%, improve company earnings by 150% per share and reduce wastage by 28%.
“Smart societies cannot be created without fairness, equality and enfranchisement and business has a crucial role to play here,” said Mr Price. “Society, quite rightly, expects a lot in return from business for the privileges it is afforded. It’s time we all delivered the goods and, in return, we will all benefit from the significantly improved performance.”
"Engage your employees and your business will noticeably benefit," he added.
