Cooperative Financial Services: Linking Ethics, Engagement, and Employer Branding to Business Model Change

One of the areas of HR activity most commonly encountered in our research is that of employee engagement. Heskett and Schlesinger define the service-profit chain as “involving direct and strong relationships between profit; growth; customer loyalty; customer satisfaction; the value of goods and services delivered to customers; and employee capability, satisfaction, loyalty and productivity” Persuaded by the principles contained within the service-profit chain theory, 1 HR Directors are investing considerable time and organizational resources into creating systems for managing and measuring the phenomenon. In relation to the three core motivations to pursue an engagement strategy laid out in Chapter 9, the approach at Cooperative Financial Services (CFS) would be categorized as an internal marketing philosophy, underpinned by a belief that the service-profit chain applies strongly in a retail banking setting.