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Top female executives usually start out with pay comparable to their male counterparts', but a gap emerges and increases over the course of their tenure. Four strategies can help them maintain pay parity.

The Cleveland Clinic has long had a reputation for medical excellence. But in 2009 the CEO acknowledged that patients did not think much of their experience there and decided to act. Since then the Clinic has leaped to the top tier of patient-satisfaction surveys, and it now draws hospital executives from around the world who want to study its practices. The Clinic's journey also holds lessons for organizations outside health care that must suddenly compete by creating a superior customer experience. The authors, one of whom was critical to steering the hospital's transformation, detail the processes that allowed the Clinic to excel at patient satisfaction without jeopardizing its traditional strengths. Hospital leaders: (1) Publicized the problem internally. Seeing the hospital's dismal service scores shocked employees into recognizing that serious flaws existed. (2) Worked to understand patients' needs. Management commissioned studies to get at the root causes of dissatisfaction. (3) Made everyone a caregiver. An enterprisewide program trained everyone, from physicians to janitors, to put the patient first. (4) Increased employee engagement. The Clinic instituted a "caregiver celebration" program and redoubled other motivational efforts. (5) Established new processes. For example, any patient, for any reason, can now make a same-day appointment with a single call. (6) Set patients' expectations. Printed and online materials educate patients about their stays--before they're admitted. Operating a truly patient-centered organization, the authors conclude, isn't a program; it's a way of life.

Southfield Packaging provides packaging materials and services to medical device manufacturers. The case examines the relationship between a corporate vice president, Mark Sanders, and one of his direct reports, Regional Manager Frank Belby. Sanders' preparation for Belby's annual performance review provides a foundation for discussing the common challenges and difficulties associated with performance reviews. Specific issues include the need to clearly define criteria for evaluation and the question of whether Belby's physical health should play a role in his performance review. Overall, is Southfield's appraisal process a fair and effective way of evaluating employee potential?

The case profiles the protagonist, Chas Eggert, CEO of OPXBIO-a bio-based, renewable chemicals startup-as he decides on the job positions and specific individuals and candidates to hire after a recent successful round of venture financing. The case provides an overview of OPXBIO, its company history, and the company's technology, as well as its founding team. It discusses the company's upcoming goals and objectives, and its human resource needs. It provides an overview of potential job positions to fill, as well as specific job candidates for those positions. Given the company's limited financial resources, it discusses the main considerations Eggert must debate in order to decide upon the positions and individuals to hire.

This case provides an overview of the nonprofit organization PATH and its Safe Water Project-a five-year effort launched in late 2006 with $17 million in funding from the global development unit of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The purpose of the grant was to evaluate to what extent market-based approaches could help accelerate the widespread adoption and sustained use of household water treatment and safe storage products by low-income populations. Through a portfolio of field-based pilots, PATH intended to experiment with different sales and distribution strategies to improve consumer access to safe water solutions, such as water filters and chlorine-based water purification tablets. It also planned to test different pricing and consumer financing models to address the affordability of these products. However, extensive market research revealed another problem-few products in the space were both effective and designed specifically to meet the unique needs and preferences of these consumers. Accordingly, PATH applied for and was awarded $7 million in additional grant funding from the Gates Foundation to design a water filter product that would meet high standards of efficacy, be desirable-or aspirational-to low income consumers, and work effectively within the rural conditions where the majority of the poor resided. The PATH team would accomplish this through a process that the organization called user-centered design.

This case provides an overview of the nonprofit organization PATH and its Safe Water Project-a five-year effort launched in late 2006 with $17 million in funding from the global development unit of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The purpose of the grant was to evaluate to what extent market-based approaches could help accelerate the widespread adoption and sustained use of household water treatment and safe storage products by low-income populations. One of the team's primary objectives was to investigate sales and distribution challenges in this space. By conducting a portfolio of field-based pilots, the team hoped to test different models for improving customer access to these safe water products in an effort to identify scalable, sustainable, and replicable solutions. Although specific results varied across the pilots, which spanned India, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Kenya, they collectively gave rise to series of important sales and distribution insights.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article.

This case describes the compensation and performance evaluations at an investment management company. The senior management team of Massachusetts Financial Services (MFS) Investment Management was contemplating an introduction of hedge funds at the firm, but many believed that typical hedge fund manager pay (20% of the upside) would harm the MFS culture, which glorified "star performance but not star egos." The case presents the MFS compensation philosophy and plan (including the plan's emphasis on subjective compensation), the types of people it attracted, the resulting culture, and how the senior management team approached the hedge funds question. It includes side discussion on firm-specific human capital. This is an abridged version of an earlier case.

Every business enterprise touches and is touched by customers in different ways at different touchpoints: points of human, product, service, communication, spatial, and/or electronic interaction collectively constituting the interface between an enterprise and its customers. Like any good architect conceiving of and giving shape to a building or a space, the enterprise must conceive, design, implement, and manage these touchpoints with the central goal of developing a compelling customer experience at all touchpoints over the course of the entire relationship cycle. This article addresses this central challenge in three stages. First, it makes the case for a holistic approach to the totality of touchpoints across all parts of the enterprise and all stages of the customer relationship cycle. Then, it offers a methodology for drawing up customer touchpoint blueprints. Finally, it suggests five critical requirements for compelling touchpoint architecture.

Monetary rewards can be a very powerful determinant of employee motivation and performance which, in turn, can lead to important returns in terms of firm-level performance. However, monetary rewards do not always lead to these desirable outcomes. We discuss in this installation of Human Performance what monetary rewards can and cannot do, and reasons why, in terms of improving employee performance. Also, we offer research-based recommendations, including the following five general principles to guide the design of successful monetary reward systems: (1) define and measure performance accurately, (2) make rewards contingent on performance, (3) reward employees in a timely manner, (4) maintain justice in the reward system, and (5) use monetary and nonmonetary rewards. In addition, we offer specific research-based guidelines for implementing each of the five principles. In short, our article summarizes research-based findings and offers recommendations that will allow managers and other organizational decision makers to understand when and why monetary reward systems are likely to be successful in terms of enhancing employee motivation and performance.

The case is a series of four short, fictional vignettes. Each vignette shines a light on the case's macro-theme of ''motivating others in a management context," and discusses the considerations involved in getting subordinates to achieve specific company goals. The first vignette profiles Lydia Geller, a newly-promoted VP, as she publicly addresses her subordinates for the first time, each of whom had previously been part of her peer group. The second vignette profiles Jeremy Sawyer, the CEO of a software company, as he reviews the sales performance of the company and, in particular, its leading salesman, Victor Mason. Given Mason's disproportionate importance to the company, Jeremy debates the actions he can take to ensure Mason's continued satisfaction and motivation. The third vignette profiles Warren Soroka, the director of sales at a logistics service provider, as he is forced to have a conversation with a long-term employee who has just been "passed over" for a promotion in favor of a younger employee. He debates how best to communicate the decision to the "passed over" employee in a way that ensures his continued motivation and performance at the company. The fourth vignette profiles Rachel Murphy, the director of academics at Barrymore University, as she is forced to give a performance review that includes both positive and negative feedback. Given the mixed nature of the performance review, she debates how best to communicate such feedback in a way that ensures the employee's understanding and continued motivation.

The case follows the progress of a year-long multi-module 'Make a Difference' programme for all 70 employees of Best Western Italy, the European operations and reservations centre for Best Western International, a global hotel group. The programme is designed to help individuals explore their own personal and professional goals, and then to work together to redesign the mission and vision of their organization. The objective is to unlock organizational energy, and to enhance trust and communication across all hierarchical levels. The outcomes included a restructuring of the senior executive level to create a flatter organization with more distributed leadership; improvement in the Great Places to Work Institute Italia ranking; and six company-wide projects initiated by employees. The case describes not only the programme design, but the necessary precursors for successful implementation, including organizational readiness for change and the skills and experience required of the coaches. It poses the question: How can this level of organizational change and renewal be sustained over time? Please visit the dedicated case website http://cases.insead.edu/best-western-italy to access video interviews and other support material.

The case follows the progress of a year-long multi-module 'Make a Difference' programme for all 70 employees of Best Western Italy, the European operations and reservations centre for Best Western International, a global hotel group. The programme is designed to help individuals explore their own personal and professional goals, and then to work together to redesign the mission and vision of their organization. The objective is to unlock organizational energy, and to enhance trust and communication across all hierarchical levels. The outcomes included a restructuring of the senior executive level to create a flatter organization with more distributed leadership; improvement in the Great Places to Work Institute Italia ranking; and six company-wide projects initiated by employees. The case describes not only the programme design, but the necessary precursors for successful implementation, including organizational readiness for change and the skills and experience required of the coaches. It poses the question: How can this level of organizational change and renewal be sustained over time? Please visit the dedicated case website http://cases.insead.edu/best-western-italy to access video interviews and other support material.

The case follows the progress of a year-long multi-module 'Make a Difference' programme for all 70 employees of Best Western Italy, the European operations and reservations centre for Best Western International, a global hotel group. The programme is designed to help individuals explore their own personal and professional goals, and then to work together to redesign the mission and vision of their organization. The objective is to unlock organizational energy, and to enhance trust and communication across all hierarchical levels. The outcomes included a restructuring of the senior executive level to create a flatter organization with more distributed leadership; improvement in the Great Places to Work Institute Italia ranking; and six company-wide projects initiated by employees. The case describes not only the programme design, but the necessary precursors for successful implementation, including organizational readiness for change and the skills and experience required of the coaches. It poses the question: How can this level of organizational change and renewal be sustained over time? Please visit the dedicated case website http://cases.insead.edu/best-western-italy to access video interviews and other support material.

This case focuses on the lead-up to Disney's 2012 annual meeting, where Disney would face a vote on the compensation package of its CEO, Robert Iger. Leading proxy advisory firms were recommending that shareholders reject the proposed compensation.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Although the initial concept for the human cloud was to create an eBay-like marketplace for talent and labor, there were obstacles. The simple auction model seemed ill-suited for large, complex undertakings. The model was also often perceived as too risky by managers, who had a hard time developing "virtual"rapport with workers. Today, four new human cloud models have developed, each aiming to overcome these problems in a distinct way: 1. The Facilitator model connects suppliers and buyers directly through a bidding process but offers increased visibility into the supplier's identity and work processes. Elance and oDesk are examples of this model. 2. The Arbitrator model enables buyers to compare the inputs of multiple providers before choosing which to purchase. Arbitrator platforms such as CrowdSpring and InnoCentive follow this approach. 3. The Aggregator model breaks down a job, such as proofreading, translation, transcription or tagging, into tiny bits of work -microtasks -and finds workers willing to complete these tasks, sometimes in the context of a game. Platforms like Amazon Mechanical Turk and CrowdFlower offer such capabilities. 4. The most sophisticated model, the Governor, provides project management, supplier certification and quality control to assure qualified coordination and management of complex projects. The authors note that harnessing the human cloud's power will -as with earlier outsourcing waves -require hard work and learning. Buyers may find it helpful to think about managing a human cloud initiative much the same way that they manage the main phases of any outsourcing engagement.

In three major waves of change over the past 30 years, employers and workers have converged on new arrangements for getting knowledge work done. First, home computers and e-mail spawned an army of freelancers, offering both workers and employers new flexibility. Next, mobile technology and global teamwork gave the same kind of work-anywhere, work-anytime flexibility to full-time employees, without asking them to forsake career progress and development within their companies. Now, in a third wave, new ways of providing community and shared space are curing a side effect of virtualization--worker isolation--and driving increased collaboration. The authors write that to make the most of this third wave of change, employers should rethink the compact they forge with workers. Five fundamental aspects of knowledge work require fresh thinking: the value of the relationship with a larger enterprise; the settings in which work is done; the organization of workflows and how individual contributors add value; the technologies used to support higher achievement; and the degree to which employment arrangements are tailored to individuals. The three waves of transformation surge forward at differing velocities across sectors and geographies and mix together in societies. Understanding how your business participates in each wave will help you make wise decisions about technology, work models, talent sources, and people practices.

Competitive advantage today increasingly comes from the particular, hard-to-duplicate know-how of a company's most-skilled knowledge workers: talented (and highly paid) engineers, salespeople, scientists, physicians, and other professionals. The problem is that in many industries there aren't enough of them to go around--and the situation promises to get worse. In this article, Dewhurst, Hancock, and Ellsworth of McKinsey & Company examine how companies can redefine the jobs of their experts, transferring some of their tasks to lower-skill people inside or outside their organizations and partnering with external providers for work that requires scarce skills but is not strategically important. Redesigning jobs so that prized experts are freed up to do the work that only they can do involves four basic steps: identifying the gaps between the talent your firm has and will need; creating narrower, competencies-based job descriptions in areas where talent is scarce; choosing from various options for filling the skills gap; and rewiring processes for talent and knowledge management to accommodate the new way of working. The authors' research and experience show that redesigning jobs in this way can help companies not only address skills shortages but also lower costs and increase job satisfaction.

The Trunk Club case begins with a description of the company's business model and the path that led the main protagonist, Brian Spaly, to the CEO post. Four vignettes compose the main body of the case. The first vignette outlines a series of challenges faced by Spaly during his first ninety days running the business, most notably a situation in which Spaly's top salesperson threatens to leave with the company's top five sales reps to start a competing venture if she is not promoted to the vacant COO role. The second vignette presents a delicate situation where the venture capital firm leading Trunk Club's Series A round of financing lobbies for the inclusion of another investor. Spaly receives a strong negative review of the second investor and must decide how to approach the lead investor. The third vignette follows Spaly as he tries to court a highly coveted veteran COO with limited means at his disposal. The fourth vignette details an employee stock grant proposal pitched by Spaly, as well as Spaly's subsequent negotiations with the company's board of directors.