It is estimated that the cost of replacing an employee can range somewhere between 50 and 60% of their salary for the search and onboarding process. When you factor in the costs associated with training and reduced productivity for the first few months, the total cost can be double the employee’s salary.
With costs like those, building employee loyalty becomes terribly important. The days of life-long employees may be over, but with a strong sense of loyalty, you may have a better chance of hanging on to those top quality employees a little bit longer.
1. Take Your Time When Hiring
We can’t overstate the importance of a good employer-employee fit as the foundation of staff loyalty. When employees share values and attitudes with their employers, loyalty is likely to be the result. So, taking a bit of extra time in the hiring and screening process will help you find the right candidates and prevent losing them later. Consider introducing candidates to team members. Show them past projects. Make an effort to get a better read of how well they will mesh with the rest of your team.
2. Be Open about Growth Opportunities
Employees will more easily be able to envision a future with your company when they are aware that the company would like to include them in the plan. Include employees in succession planning discussions. Be forthright about their current skills and aptitudes, where holes may exist, and what can be done to close the gap. Helping employees achieve their professional growth goals demonstrates that your company is invested in employee success. Can you think of a better way to grow staff loyalty?
3. Empower Your Employees
When people feel they are trusted and valued, they tend to reciprocate those feelings. Whenever possible, give your employees the authority to make decisions that relate to their work. The resulting sense of freedom and responsibility could inspire them to go above and beyond, improving the work environment as a whole.
4. Mentorship and Team Building
Provide opportunities for more experienced people to mentor junior employees. There are lots of benefits of programs like these, not the least of which include creating growth and learning opportunities for junior staff members, while clearly demonstrating to senior staff that you recognize his or her skills and knowledge. It also helps to build solid relationships between employees.
Encourage team building and social activities among employees. The team-building experience will help them work better together, resolve conflicts more easily and build trust. It can also become the basis of some long-lasting friendships. When employees count their co-workers as their friends, it builds a deeper sense of belonging, as well as staff loyalty.
5. Give Employees a Voice
Some of the best ideas for building employee loyalty are most likely to come from your employees, if you’re open to hearing them. When you adopt a policy of openness to hearing new ideas, no matter where they came from, you’ll be tapping into a very powerful brain trust of people who know your business well. Additionally, when employees feel included in your company’s process of innovation, they will feel more closely connected to its success.
Another excellent way of gathering information for your in-house experts is through the use of employee engagement and satisfaction surveys. Not only will you get your hands on actionable data, but you’ll also be clearly demonstrating how much you need and value employee opinions and ideas.
