After you hire to fit company culture, the next step is to cultivate employee loyalty among your workforce. Doing so will lead to higher employee productivity and engagement, which Gallup found led to 21% greater profitability. As such, loyal employees can help your business grow and develop. But employee loyalty is not a given; it has to be earned and nurtured over time.
How to Start Building Employee Loyalty
Real loyalty develops when an employee trusts and respects the company. Employees must trust that the company has their best interests at heart and is invested in them. Simply put, it’s a two-way street. If they sense that they are not valued, employees will leave the first chance they get. That’s why the company must take actionable steps towards cultivating employee loyalty.
The first step in fostering employee loyalty is to must make sure the employee’s and organization’s interests are aligned. As the key that connects an employee’s interests to the company’s, this duty falls upon the managers. Regularly communicating the organization’s goals during meetings show how employee contributions affect team and organization success, which, in turn, engages employees.
Another crucial step in building loyalty is to create an engaging work environment. A team effort between managers and higher-ups, establishing the right company culture, one that nurtures employees and creates compelling experiences, will go a long way in keeping employees loyal. Here are a couple ways to help you get started:
- Provide continuing education workshops.
Creating a space where employees can learn and improve their skills sends a message that the company and the team is invested in them, in helping them become the best they can be.
- Offer quality employee benefits.
Providing relevant benefits, like remote work or flexible work schedules, shows that the company supports their employees to the fullest, ultimately making them feel valued.
How to Nurture Employee Loyalty
Now that you’ve taken the first steps towards earning loyalty, how do you nurture it? The first step is to see which employee loyalty efforts have been effective by collecting data through an anonymous feedback system. An anonymous feedback system is essential at this point as it provides employees the chance to provide honest feedback while protecting their privacy. Ultimately, this will help you win their trust and long-term commitment because it shows that you value their opinion and respect their privacy.
With the data you’ve collected through the surveys, you’ll have an overview of what drives your employees and, essentially, what keeps them loyal. You’ll know which areas you need to act on. So, the next step is to open the floor to your employees for constructive suggestions on how to address some of these issues.
- Set up a meeting to discuss relevant feedback.
- List out the main issues to discuss.
- Open the floor to employees on how the overall work environment is looking and for any constructive suggestions.
- Based on suggestions, create 3-5 actionable steps for the next 3 months.
- Establish a timeline of bi-weekly or monthly follow-up meetings until the deadline to ensure everything is on track.
- Periodically encourage employees to share new ideas and constructive feedback.
Bottom Line
Like any trust-building effort, building employee loyalty takes time, but it will be worth it. Any efforts, big or small, sends a powerful message that you are interested in their well-being, spurring them to be more productive and engaged in the company. After a year, you will be able to see these efforts shine through lower turnover rates, higher engagement, employee advocacy and, most importantly, employee loyalty.
Looking for a way you can enhance existing employee loyalty? Contact CorpStrat to learn how we help companies attract, reward, and retain their most important assets – their people.