????在所有圍繞最低工資的憤怒和聲討之中,，以及沒有前途的低收入工作激增的情況下，沒有人質(zhì)疑一個關鍵的假設：增加對勞動力的投資需要消費者或股東掏腰包,。

????不過,，幾乎沒人質(zhì)疑不等于完全沒人。麻省理工學院（MIT）斯隆商學院（Sloan School of Management）教授商業(yè)運營課程的澤伊內(nèi)普?湯恩是個例外,。她花費了十年的時間到美國各地調(diào)研零售業(yè)工人和他們的上級,，詳細研究了沃爾瑪(Wal-Mart)、好市多（Costco）,、 Trader Joe's和QuikTrip等零售企業(yè),，以及UPS、,、豐田（Toyota）和西南航空（Southwest Airlines）等公司的日常運營細節(jié),。

????調(diào)研成果即將出版在《優(yōu)異的勞資策略：聰明的公司如何投資員工,，降低成本，提高利潤》（The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs and Boost Profits）一書中,，完全顛覆了傳統(tǒng)觀念,。唐恩做了令人信服的調(diào)查，提高薪資和福利（并給員工更清晰的職業(yè)發(fā)展目標）,，獲得更高的客戶滿意度（包括更具競爭力的價格和出眾的服務）以及更豐厚的股東回報,。

????如果建立在純理論的基礎之上，這些論證或許遠沒有這么令人信服,，但這本書中闡述的四步策略直接取自數(shù)年來默默執(zhí)行的幾家公司,。

????看看好市多。唐恩寫到,，這家公司的平均薪資為每小時20.89美元,，比最接近的競爭對手、沃爾瑪?shù)纳侥窌T店（Sam's Club）高出40%,。好市多向所有每周工作超過20個小時的員工提供福利,。員工能看到升職的機會，因為98%的門店經(jīng)理和很多好市多高管都是從倉庫管理或收銀員做起的,。

????這家公司的招聘很受歡迎,。2005年，好市多在密歇根州Green Oak Township新開店（那時距離經(jīng)濟衰退造成失業(yè)率激增還很遙遠）時,，5,000人應聘它的160個崗位,。服務滿一年及以上員工的流失率為5.5%，僅為零售行業(yè)平均水平的四分之一,。唐恩指出,，維持低成本有很多辦法，好好對待員工就是其中一個,。

????因此,，這種做法既利于員工，也利于消費者和股東嗎,？顯然如此,。《消費者報告》（Consumer Reports）將好市多列入美國消費者滿意度前五的零售商,。而且,，這家公司還是一棵搖錢樹：唐恩計算顯示，好市多單位平方英尺銷售額比山姆會員店高近70%,，單位員工銷售額高出近一倍,。好市多庫存流轉(zhuǎn)率也是零售商平均值的兩倍。投資者也得到了好處：好市多股價自2003年中至今已大漲了5倍，而沃爾瑪同期僅上漲了40%,。

????好市多和唐恩研究的其他幾家提供好工作,、但不犧牲低價或高回報的公司一樣，主要通過4種方式取得顯而易見的魅力,?！秲?yōu)秀勞資策略》詳細地描述了每一步，其中第一步就是為顧客提供更少,、但更好的選擇,。（看看西南航空，它們的航班不提供不必要的服務,、只運營有限的航線,、同時培養(yǎng)了同心協(xié)力的員工；或者再看看Trader Joe's,，它出售的商品比大多數(shù)超市都少,，但它卻把這個特點轉(zhuǎn)變成了競爭優(yōu)勢，部分原因是每位員工都成了商店存貨方面的專家,。）

????接下來的一步是在常規(guī)流程中嚴格遵守標準，在其他事情上讓員工們充分運用自己的判斷力,。第三步,，提倡員工互相培訓，從而使得每個人都能在需要時做其他人的工作,。第四步,，唐恩運用好市多和其他公司的一些小型案例研究顯示，在員工配備上允許一定程度的冗余,，甚至有時超編,，可以最大程度地利用員工的時間，借此削減成本,。

????唐恩警告稱,，這四步中沒有一步能夠不依賴其他三個獨立發(fā)揮作用。她寫到：“它是一攬子方案,?！彼€很清楚地意識到，采用這種策略的所有四步意味著將全面改變現(xiàn)有做法,，但她相信這是值得的——而且不僅僅只對臨時工有效,。

????“當前的低成本零售業(yè)務運營方式——或者，我稱為壞工作的策略,，對于管理層而言都很有壓力,，”唐恩寫到?！八鼤萑胍粋€無休止的怪圈,，永遠追求盡可能地保持低勞工成本,，以及應對所有因此產(chǎn)生的運營和服務難題?！彼J為,，提供更佳工作的地方不僅僅是零售商的事?！叭绻霉ぷ鞑呗栽诘统杀玖闶坌袠I(yè)能行得通,，”她寫道?！澳敲?，它可能基本上在其他領域都可行?！保ㄘ敻恢形木W(wǎng)）

????In all the sound and fury over the minimum wage, and the current boom in low-paying, dead-end jobs, nobody is questioning a crucial assumption: More investment in labor would have to come out of consumers' and shareholders' pockets.

????Make that almost nobody. Zeynep Ton, who teaches business operations at MIT's Sloan School of Management, spent 10 years traveling the U.S. talking with workers and their supervisors in retail. She scrutinized the day-to-day details of how things get done (or don't) in the trenches at retailers like Wal-Mart (WMT), Costco (COST), Trader Joe's, and QuikTrip, and inside other employers including UPS (UPS), Toyota (TM), and Southwest Airlines (LUV).

????The result is a forthcoming book, The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs and Boost Profits, that stands the conventional wisdom on its head. Ton makes a convincing case that better pay and benefits -- and giving workers a clear shot at career advancement -- yield higher customer satisfaction (including competitive prices and stellar service) and fatter shareholder returns.

????This argument would be far less persuasive if it were built on mere theory, but the four-part strategy laid out in the book is drawn straight from what a few companies have quietly been doing for years.

????Consider Costco. Ton writes that average pay for workers at the company is $20.89 an hour, more than 40% higher than pay at its closest competitor, Sam's Club (owned by Wal-Mart). Costco offers benefits to all employees who work more than 20 hours a week. Workers also see the chance to move up, since 98% of store managers, and many Costco executives, started out as stock clerks or cashiers.

????Jobs at the company are so coveted that, when Costco opened a new store in Green Oak Township, Mich. in 2005 (well before the recession sent unemployment soaring), 5,000 people applied for 160 openings. Among employees who have been with the company for a year or more, turnover is 5.5%, about a quarter of the average for the retail industry -- just one way among many, Ton notes, that treating workers well can help keep costs low.

????So is what's good for workers also good for consumers and shareholders? Evidently, yes.Consumer Reports ranks Costco among the top five retailers nationwide in customer satisfaction. And the company mints money: Ton calculates that its sales per square foot are almost 70% higher than Sam's Club, and sales per employee nearly double. Costco also turns its inventory at twice the rate of the average variety retailer. Investors reap the benefits: Costco stock has gone up sixfold since mid-2003, vs. a gain of 40% for Wal-Mart shares over the same period.

????Along with several other companies Ton studied that are creating good jobs without sacrificing low prices or high returns, Costco achieves this apparent magic in four ways, and The Good Jobs Strategy describes each step in detail, starting with offering customers fewer, but better, choices. (Think Southwest Airlines, with its no-frills flights, limited routes, and gung-ho employees; or Trader Joe's, which carries fewer items than most supermarkets but has turned that into a competitive advantage, in part because every employee is an expert on what the stores do stock.)

????Next comes a rigid adherence to standardization in routine processes, while letting employees use their own judgment about everything else. Third, the strategy calls for cross-training employees so they can do each other's jobs when needed. Fourth, Ton uses specific mini-case studies from inside Costco and other companies to show how building some slack into staffing, even erring on the side of overstaffing at times, can cut costs by making the most efficient use of workers' time.

????Ton cautions that none of these four measures will work well without the others. "It's a package deal," she writes. She's also well aware that, at many companies, adopting all four parts of the strategy would mean a total overhaul of current practices, but she believes that would be worth the effort -- and not just for hourly workers.

????"The current practice of low-cost retail -- or what I call the bad-jobs strategy -- is stressful for management," Ton writes. "It fosters an endless trench-warfare mentality of keeping labor costs as low as possible while dealing with all the operational and service problems created by doing that." Nor is offering better jobs only for retailers, in her view. "If the good-jobs strategy is possible in low-cost retail," she writes, "then it is possible pretty much anywhere."