May the workforce be with you
“Everyone talks about building a relationship with your customers. I think you build one with your employees first.”
– Angela Ahrendts (Senior Vice President, Apple)
Employee loyalty has been decreasing over the years. In a study conducted by careerbuiler.com, 76% of full-time workers would leave their current workplace if the right opportunity came along. A good employee loyalty percentage reflects:
- Better retention.
- Happy and engaged employees.
- Higher productivity.
Organizations struggle to build a loyal employee workforce for multiple reasons. Sometimes the cause of high attrition among employees could be due to singular reasons like:
- Restricted freedom of work.
- Complex hierarchy.
- Absence of transparency.
- Inflexible work hours.
The reasons could be many. We have already written about why 33% of new hires quit within the first six months of their employment. In this post, we will discuss how a strong and loyal workforce can be built by executing productive strategies that benefit the employees.
Open Door Policy
Studies have shown that communication is essential for achieving employee engagement and productivity. Communication should not be just horizontal. It needs to be vertical as well. This is where the concept of Open Door Policy comes to play. As a definition, Open Door Policy means that the doors of the offices of superiors, managers, and the CEO should remain open. It allows for an anti-hierarchy communication. Every employee thus gains the freedom to go to his managers or higher-ups for guidance, mentorship, or issues.
A healthy vertical, horizontal, and cross-functional interaction enables better employee engagement. Certain issues and concerns are also brought to light that otherwise may never have been uncovered. A sense of transparency gets restored through the Open Door Policy.
Benefits:
- Effective Communication.
- Absence of Confusion.
- Healthy Discussions.
- Transparent
Invest in Employee Progression
Henry Ford once said, “The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.”
If your organization is focused on employee development, there will be a definite impact on loyalty and productivity. In a study by LinkedIn, “Companies rated highly on employee training saw 53% lower attrition.”
As the percentages show, it’s evident that investing in the progression of your employees’ will reduce your attrition sharply. If you’re training your employees in skills they lack, which results in lower attrition, it naturally means that a more skillful employee than before is working for you. It’s a direct benefit for your organization in the form of higher productivity and reduced attrition. It’s an investment that is worth every penny. A workforce with constantly improving skills also gives your organization a competitive edge over your competitors.
Better your employees; they will return the favor by contributing.
Mitigate Uncertainty
We’re not referring to uncertainty here as an uncertain time for the company. Uncertainty is a state every company goes through, and there is nothing wrong with it. We’re referring to uncertainty in the minds of employees over how they think of their future. If colleagues around you are constantly being demoted or fired, there is a sense of fear that comes to every employee’s mind. This can spread like wildfire across the organization. In no time, you will see employees in defensive and communication between then declining.
It’s good to have a stable process where firing happens at a moment where there are no other options left, after every opportunity available to better the employee has been used. A process like that always reassures employees that there is no uncertainty in the organization, and they won’t be taken by surprise.
Fear of getting fired decreases productivity by half. Companies relying on fear as a productivity tool achieve exactly the opposite of what they set out to achieve, losing their brand image and good employees in the process.
Do not tolerate bad behavior by brilliant workers
“Do not tolerate brilliant jerks. The cost to teamwork is too high.”
– Reed Hastings, CEO Netflix.
Bad behavior is generally not tolerated in most of the organizations. But if you were aware of the recent Uber controversy, the CEO Travis Kalanick was found guilty of misbehavior, gender partiality, and being abusive to his Uber drivers. He had had to step down. It is deeply important for an organization’s culture not to tolerate bad behavior, which can take any form:
- Generally, being a jerk and not a team worker.
- Gender or racially motivated misbehavior.
It is important to throw such behavior out of the window. If you let bad behavior take place as a decision-maker, as a rule, bad behavior will be established as a culture. And nothing could be more dangerous to your organization’s health than a prevalence of bad behavior.
- Find bad behavior.
- Punish it.
- Set a precedent.
There is a reason an organization has numerous people from various backgrounds, and not one crazy scientist working in a laboratory. There is nothing more reassuring for employees to feel safe, well-respected, and appreciated. A reassured and well-respected employee sticks around and works hard.
Ownership
“Hire smart people and let them tell you what to do.”
– Steve Jobs
Studies show that employees tend to work harder when given ownership of specific tasks or work. In an instructional framework (telling them what to do), it is seen that the motivations are generally limited. Your organization should be structured in such a way that ownership of projects flows down the hierarchy. And every task has an owner with a KPI.
The sense of ownership increases the motivation, holds the employee in a position of responsibility and ends up in a better performance. The psychological importance of this approach is that the employee deeply feels belonged and involved. He/she has a sense of being in the larger scheme of things. A sense of belonging produces loyalty, like nothing else can.
Benefits & Flexibility
“Companies rated highly on flexible work arrangements saw 137% higher headcount growth” (LinkedIn)
If you give your employees benefits that your competitors don’t, expect better employee loyalty. You can see startups sharing their stocks with their employees to big organizations like Google, providing massive benefits to each of their organizations. It’s no surprise that these companies are constantly ranked as the most preferred places to work. Benefits secure employees, providing a sense of comfort and belonging. It’s not always simple to chalk out benefits. Your organization might not afford to have benefits that match those of the large organizations.
In such cases, ESOPs and other such options could be guiding motivators.
“73% of employees said flexible work arrangements increased their satisfaction at work.”
One more method is to provide a flexible work environment for your employees. Today, unlike before, technology enables communication, collaboration, and tracking like never, and data points that a flexible workforce is more productive than an inflexible one.
To end it, we would say consider achieving employee loyalty an objective. No organization can have 100% employee loyalty. But to try and better it would go a long way in your organization’s health and wellness: yes, the balance sheet.
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