Legendary movie producer and studio founder Samuel Goldwyn once said, “I’ll take fifty percent efficiency to get one hundred percent loyalty.”
That tradeoff might seem extreme for many of today’s managers and executives. But if your rush for productivity eclipses your efforts to inspire loyalty in your employees, you could be damaging the very foundation of your company.
The idea of loyalty lies at the heart of employee engagement; workers will never go the extra mile for an organization until they feel loyal to that company’s purpose and vision. But in an economy when bottom lines are viewed with increasing urgency and a typical American worker seems destined to change jobs frequently, many companies have dismissed the ideal of creating a workplace rich in employee loyalty.
A 2011 Metlife study reveals that even though employers think their people are just as loyal as they were three years ago, in reality more workers are thinking of changing jobs now than they were before the economy plummeted. More than a third of the employees polled told MetLife that they hope to have a new job within the next 12 months, and four in ten responded that it was likely they would find a job that matches their current experience and salary in the next six months.
Managers hoping to stem that coming tide must focus on improving employee communication and taking care of the details that help create a warm and welcoming workplace environment. While higher salaries can help, many of today’s workers have indicated that a sense of belonging and collaboration with the company’s mission are more important than remuneration.
An article written by Anne Berkowitch for Business Week indicated that this paradigm shift from financial to emotional is particularly striking among the “Millenials,” that 24-32 age group that will make up 60 percent of the workforce five years from now.
“Today’s employees value open communication, meaningful work, and connection to their company more than they do high salaries, as reported in the 2009 10th annual Deloitte Best Company to Work For survey,” Berkowitch wrote. “Employees who feel valued and engaged with what is going on in their companies are far more likely to stay longer than disengaged, slightly higher-paid employees.”
So how do employers inspire loyalty and help workers feel like they are part of a greater whole? One strategy is implementing an organizational social networking site that will foster employee communication and allow managers to keep their people in the loop. In an era where instant information is the order of the day, the companies who keep pace with that trend will be the ones with the most satisfied workforce.
Targeted employee assessments and frequent two-way meetings between managers and their employees will also prepare the soil for loyal workers, especially if decision makers listen to the input and make changes accordingly. Employees should have the opportunity to weigh in regularly on the changes that would make them feel a stronger sense of belonging to their company, and whenever possible those suggestions should lead to action.
It can even be as simple as saying ‘thank you’ or writing a thank-you note to workers who go the extra mile, said Kevin Sheridan, chief engagement officer at HR Solutions. The most loyalty-inspiring workplace dynamics will come when employees are sure not only that their contributions are valued, but that they feel valued as individuals.
“(Employees) want to know that they’re reporting to someone who cares about them as a person, and cares about their engagement level,” Sheridan told USA Today in a March 2011 article about the MetLife loyalty study.