WISE INTERVENTIONS

In an hour-long session, new employees at an Indian call center (1) listened to a senior leader discuss how the company offered each new employee opportunities to express him or herself and generate individual opportunities; (2) completed an individual problem-solving task, ranking items in order of importance if stranded on a life raft at sea; (3) reflected on how their decisions might compare to others’; (4) listed three words that “best describe you as an individual,” described “what is unique about you that leads to your happiest times and best performance at work,” described “a specific time—perhaps on the job, perhaps at home—when you were acting the way you were ‘born to act’,” and “how can you repeat that behavior on this job”; and (5) introduced “their best selves to their future work group” and discussed how they approached the problem-solving task. Participants also received a sweatshirt with their individual names on them and an individual badge. As compared to new employees who took part in an hour-long session that focused on the strengths of the company and to a control condition that received standard training, those in the individual condition were less likely to leave the firm and showed greater customer satisfaction over the next six months.