Most people would like to believe that there’s a kind of economic karma: Companies that treat employees well will see their stock prices rise, and those that treat employees badly watch their stocks fall.
If only it were that simple.
In theory, benevolent employers should have an advantage. “To me, it’s absolutely true,” says Jerome Dodson, manager of the Parnassus fund. “If a company treats its employees well, the business should prosper and that should show up in the stock price,” Dodson says.