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?

Related Books

Stages of Talent Management

After reading so much about Ancient China's History and Military Works. I have gathered that there are three stages of using talents and all require great skills and wisdom. The three stages are as follows:

1) Recognize Talents
2) "Buy" Talents
3) Use Talents

Recognize Talents (识人)

Before you can even think about using talents, you must first be able to recognize one. How to recognize one? Well in this day and age, where information are plenty. 'Googling' for talents maybe something a company can look into. 'Google' the skills that you require and seek out the website contributors of those sites you think might lead you to the talent you are seeking. Another way of finding and recognizing talents is to ask those you know to recommend one. Usually, if one bother to recommend, even if it is only one, you should spend time to look into his recommendation. Would you recommend someone for the job if he is not good?

"Buy" Talents (得人)

Now what do I mean by "buying" talents? Very simply put, to have your talent pledge loyalty to you. Why is this so? Very simple, if you are not able to gain the loyalty of the talent you are seeking, do you think he will give you his best? So recognize the needs of your talents and give it to them where possible. Now, providing a huge renumeration package can only buy that much amount of loyalty. It has to be accompanied with other intangibles like nice working environment, good working relationship with subordinates and supervisor and so on.

Use Talents (用人)

After you have recognize and "buy" the talents, then you have to know how to use the talents. You have to put him in a position that would allow his talents to add the greatest value to the company. This comes with giving an adequate amount of authority to his position as well. Because even if you put him in a position that will allow him to use his talents to the fullest, if you 'tie' him up without giving enough authority to make decision, it is equivalent to not using him at all.

So these are a brief description of the three stages of using talents. Hope it helps in your human resource management.