Employee Loyalty…It’s Management’s Responsibility

A quote making the rounds on LinkedIn: “Never push a loyal person to the point where they no longer care.” This got me thinking about the importance of employers having a sincere commitment to the well-being of their outstanding, successful employees.

Loyalty can be defined as being faithful to a cause, ideal, custom, institution or product. Today, many employees feel disconnected from their work and their employer. Layoffs, reduced benefits and an uninspiring work environment are just a few of the reasons employers lose employee confidence and employee enthusiasm. Management inspires (or doesn’t inspire) loyalty amongst their workforce.

The loss of a loyal, successful and accomplished employee is very costly. It is estimated that the cost of replacing an employee can be as high as 150% of their salary. Some costs are measurable; others are not. Costs include hiring and training a replacement, the cost of business lost because you aren’t fully staffed and opportunities are missed, the cost of dissatisfaction of your current customers, the cost of lowered morale of employees that remain and the potential loss of additional employees as their coworkers leave, are dismissed, etc.

James Harter of Gallup says “Loyalty, which can be considered a component of employee engagement, is based on a number of factors including whether the employer looks out for employees’ best interests, pays attention to their career path, gives them opportunities to improve their well-being and so forth. Managers play a crucial role."

Research shows that the most successful organizations have high employee morale and loyalty. It is in management’s best interest to nurture a work environment that truly cares about their employees and their well-being.