Talking Profit

I consider myself a business person first and an HR professional second. I am not a "tea and sympathy" HR person. However, I also realize employees work better for a company when they are not abused. Heck, I work better for a company when I am not abused. That's part of the reason I started my own company.

But what HR practices contribute both to a company's profitabilty and to the welfare of its workforce? Most HR practitioners have been around long enough to know that the two are not necessarily linked. You can have a profitable company that treats its employees like slave labor. By the same token, a company can bend over backwards for its employees and go down the tube.

If a practice does not contribute to the company's bottom line, why do it?

I am teaching a class on Ethics in HR currently for Midwestern State University, and we are talking about how ethical behavior and corporate responsibility affect profits. There is a positive link. I will post the results of some studies here over the next day or two. If you have read any good articles related to this recently, feel free to post your cites. I would love to read them.