If you feel like you’ve been seeing the term ‘employee loyalty’ all over the place recently, we are happy to report that you are not suffering from some strange form of retrograde déjà vu – it’s one of the hot-button topics for 2019. See, the thing is that a truly loyal employee is very much like a miraculously-intact Nissan 1400 bakkie from the 80s – when you find one, you hang onto it for dear life, keep it in good nick and thank your lucky stars that this extraordinary, never-say-die tool is a part of your all-important arsenal. It’s a thing of beauty.
Before the bakkie metaphor starts unravelling, here are a few reasons why you should value the Nissan 1400s on your team, and do your utmost to foster employee loyalty within your company in 2019:
They make your business a better place:
Employee loyalty is often the result of a great company culture, and the inverse is also true – loyal employees contribute to a lekker company culture. When someone is loyal to the cause, they put their backs into their work, support their peers, respect their superiors and generally tend to opt out of lingering gossip session and/or dirty-laundry-airing in the lunchroom. They come to play and they go above and beyond. Instead of simply filling a chair and cashing a paycheck, they are right there in the trenches, actively taking an interest in the well-being of the company and figuring out ways to excel in their role. In short, a human resources unicorn that sprinkles fairy dust wherever it goes.
Loyal employees are engaged employees:
Calculating employee engagement levels is one of the simplest ways to get to grips with whether your team members are content in their positions and whether your business has what it takes to cultivate employee loyalty. Engaged employees quite frankly mean the difference between a business that survives and one that thrives in today’s trying economic atmosphere. By keeping tabs on employee loyalty and recalibrating your company culture when you realise that it’s not conducive to nurture this important trait, you pave the way for long-term success.
They stick around:
Employees who are loyal to the company have a wonderful habit of sticking around. This is good for business in a number of ways. First of all, your staff turnover stays on an even keel. High staff turnover is a pain in the neck for a variety of reasons (it’s expensive to recruit and train new people all the time; it makes your business a less-attractive prospect for top talent, etc.), but most importantly it leads to an inevitable leaching of skill. Having long-term heavyweights on your team is also good for your bottom line because they know and understand your customers, which means they know what they need and how to give it to them.
Customer satisfaction = customer loyalty = stable revenue = happy days!
When you recognise your employees’ efforts in the workplace, they are far more likely to become a permanent fixture. Plus, it doesn’t have to cost the earth. There are rewards platforms that can be scaled to your business and the ROI is something quite astonishing.
When they leave they’re cool about how they do it:
When someone works for a company for a long time, their cache of knowledge regarding the many intricacies of their position becomes extremely valuable. The many small details that make up a part of their day-to-day is something that is very hard to capture on a hand-over document. As such, it can be pretty devastating when a long-term stalwart takes a seat in your office and tells you they need to leave.
But sometimes they need to make a move. Even loyal employees outgrow their positions, find new passions, follow their spouses to new cities or simply need to follow their bliss. You can’t get mad at humans when they grow – it’s a good thing. In cases like these, employee loyalty often lays the groundwork for a much less harrowing transition period. When someone cares about their job, their team and their company, they find a way to ensure that the hole they leave won’t turn into a gaping abyss – they do epic handovers, train new recruits and leave the place better than they found it.
There you have it – a few of the most important ways in which employee loyalty contributes to the wellbeing of your company.
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