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Corporate Karma– When You Don’t Treat Your Workers Well

Electronics Retailer Has Struggled With Layoffs, Departures and Shrinking Profits

By Natalie Zmuda

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Amid turmoil at Circuit City, Peter Weedfald, senior VP-chief marketing officer, is leaving the company.

Peter Weedfald

Photo Credit: Scott Gries

Mr. Weedfald said yesterday he would be departing this week to return to his home in New Jersey. “I will be intently focused, full-time, seeking my next sales and marketing opportunity,” he wrote in an e-mail.

Mr. Weedfald left Samsung to join Circuit City in July 2006 and was named top marketing executive in September of that year. In the 18 months that Mr. Weedfald spent as chief marketing officer, the retailer struggled with layoffs, a string of executive departures and poor financial performance. Last Friday, Circuit City acknowledged that it had received a proposal from shareholder Wattles Capital Management, which owns a 6.5% stake in the retailer. In the proposal, Wattles sought to replace the entire 12-member Circuit City board of directors with its own nominees.

For the entire article go to AdAge.com

Corra has always believed a business should treat its workers well. Reward them when they are productive, and discipline them when they screw up.

Clearly studies, empirical and formal, show that workers who feel involved, enfranchised and rewarded are far more productive then those who don’t. So when you pay them well, give them benefits and include them as part of your overall corporate team, you create a positive working environment.

Visit in this article how reducing wages for your top earners leads to catastrophe of one sort or another. Here Circuit City essentially demoted its key sales people and sales and earnings declined.

The moral of the story is take care of your employees. Don’t disappoint them or commit to speculative savings efforts that ultimate reduce morale and earnings.

When you hire your new employees, conduct background checks to makes sure they are a good fit for the position. Background checks will help determine that you are making a good investment in time and resources. Running the education verification as well as criminal searches is always a good idea.

Check them out before you hire.

By Gordon Basichis

Gordon Basichis is the Co-Founder of Corra Group, specializing in pre-employment background checks and corporate research. He has been a marketing and media executive and has worked in the entertainment industry, the financial, health care and technology sectors. He is the author of the best selling Beautiful Bad Girl, The Vicki Morgan Story, a non-fiction novel that helped define exotic sexuality in the late twentieth century. He is the author of the Constant Travellers and has recently completed a new book, The Guys Who Spied for China, dealing with Chinese Espionage in the United States. He has been a journalist for several newspapers and is a screenwriter and producer.