Highlight: Here is a list of 10 simple yet effective steps you can take which can amplify employee loyalty and take your organisation forward.
Why is employee loyalty important?
A loyal and dedicated workforce is any companies’ greatest asset. HR professionals well recognise the criticality of not only hiring the right kind of talent but also retaining them. And there’s nuance here – a manner of retaining that’s a win-win and not just an inevitable path to a delayed disengagement.
After all, not only is a loyal employee more likely to be dedicated and more productive to achieve the organisational goals, it also helps in bringing down the turnover cost of the organisation. Turnover cost includes the following 4 broad components:
- Cost of termination
- Cost of vacancy
- Cost of replacement
- Cost of productivity loss along the learning curve
It is clear as day that employee loyalty can play a significant role in determining the social as well as the financial performance of your organisation.
What can be done to amplify Employee loyalty?
While it is sufficiently clear that employee loyalty can be a make or break factor in any organisation’s progression, the next logical question is, what can be done in this regard to maximize employee loyalty in an organisation.
Here is a list of 10 simple yet effective steps you can take which can amplify employee loyalty:
- Strong and effective leadership
An organisation is steered in the direction of success by its leadership and therefore, effective leadership is a very important factor. As per a study undertaken by Udemy, as many as 50% of the employees have gone on record and stated that the reason behind quitting their job is a bad manager and as many as 60 per cent of the employees think managers need managerial training.
Having a more robust and effective leadership is one of the most important factors in determining employee loyalty. The same was also reaffirmed by the Darwin Survey results.
- Constant feedback
Several reports over the years have confirmed that employees prefer more frequent feedback on their work, more often than during the annual performance review. Not only does it keep them on their toes to be a better version of themselves, it also helps the employees in setting up concrete future goals and the roadmap to achieving them.
- Constructive criticism
As a corollary to the previous point, while giving constant feedback, what is also important is also the way of giving the feedback: good or bad. While criticism can help a person regroup and make amends to function in a better manner, wrongly worded criticism can definitely have an adverse impact on their morale and motivation levels.
- Open communication channels
In addition to giving feedback to the employees, it is also important that there is scope for the employees’ feedback to the management. According to a report by TINYpulse, employees who don’t feel comfortable giving upward feedback are 16% less likely to stay at their companies, according to TINYpulse.
Having an effective upward evaluation system not only helps keep the managers updated with the wants of the employees, it also helps earn the employee loyalty as the employees feel that their opinion was taken into account in making organisational decisions.
- Having a mentoring programme in place
A mentoring programme may be the best way to integrate the management and the employees and establish open lines of communication. This will not only facilitate the open feedback system as discussed previously, but it also helps the professional and personal growth of the employee, which may have a positive impact on the employee loyalty towards the management and the company.
- Encourage work-life balance
With the changing times, it is important that the personal life of the employees is not completely ignored by the employers. In fact, as per the report titled “2020 Retention Report: Trends, Reasons & Wake Up Call”, it was concluded that a major factor affecting employee loyalty is ensuring they have some sort of work-life balance. Offering options like easy commute, schedule flexibility, hybrid working model et al can help gain employee loyalty as many as 12 per cent of employees had quit their jobs in 2019 due to work-life balance problems, as per the 2020 Retention report.
- Increased work growth opportunities
As per LinkedIn’s 2018 Workforce Learning Report, it was found that as many as 93% of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their careers. Stagnancy in professional growth is also one of the most common reasons for employees leaving their jobs as per the 2020 Retention report.
- Avoid micromanaging the employees
It is important to give employees enough space to do their work in their own way, so that they can not only be the best version of themselves for the job but also that they do not feel frustrated and bound in their own job, leading them to actually enjoy working. This will not only earn their loyalty but also helps in achieving the organisational goals in a more effective manner.
- Maintain neutrality
Playing favourites with your employees or indulging in any kind of gender bias with respect to the job that needs to be done may lead to dissatisfaction amongst the employees. Having a healthy work environment, involving equal treatment of all without any biases or preconceived notions, goes a long way toward earning employee loyalty.
- Financial benefits
As per the PwC’s ‘Employee financial wellness survey’ (2017) it was found that as many as “53% of employees are stressed about their finances”. In fact, in the Barclays survey, “38% of employees said that they would move to a company which puts financial wellbeing as a priority”.
So, financial wellness may be one of the most important priorities in the life of your employee. In fact, it can be said that financial wellness is the new must-have employee benefit and by taking care of that, the organisation can increase the chances of employee loyalty.
Parting thoughts
It is rightly said that employee loyalty is not taken, it is earned. So, it is important for HR to orient its policies to serve the needs of the employees better. However, that is easier said than done.
This is where Fibe comes to your rescue. With a range of services like easy loan, salary advances et al, all of which comes easily with a click, the services can be customised to suit the needs of the individual employees without any hassle. To know more, visit our website here.
