Buying Employee's Loyalty

Buying Employee's Loyalty is something all employers should try to do in good times and bad times. Reason is because as we understood from many management books is that high turnover can be very harmful to the company, especially those that are in the Knowledge Industry. Any staff that leave takes with him specific knowledge, skills and experience which can be very valuable. If there is an intention to replace the headcount, the organization fit and job fit might not be suitable and the corporation definitely will need time to make the new hire fully functional, usually a few months.

Of course it is unrealistic to achieve zero turnover or use legal covenants to bind the employee to the company. Doing such actions would destroy the employee's loyalty to the company and in the end he will try to rationalise his efforts in the company and not give extra value to the company. He might bad mouth the company outside and this could hurt the company's ability to attract talents. Worst thing is to leak out information of the company or take great miscalculated risk causing severe damage to company he is working in.

In this bad times, it is an opportunity to buy the employee's loyalty by treating them better than other companies which can be easily done. Treat them like customers, meet their needs using the remuneration system. Show that you care about their welfare, in fact if the company is making money, part of the profits should be shared to the employee during this bad times. Employees see that they are treated well during a downturn will be much willing to increase their loyalty to the company. Such satisfaction and happiness working in a company that cares for them in bad times can translate into greater efforts put in their jobs. The benefit is even greater in good times when other companies' staff recover from lower morale while the company that takes care of the employee's in bad times move to higher morale.

Are you buying your employee's loyalty now? Do it where possible. This recession would not last long, your company will last longer but at the end will your company be stronger or weaker after the economy disaster?

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