Every manager knows employee loyalty isn’t what it used to be just a few decades ago. The days of working for one company your entire career are long gone, and young people are hopping jobs as often as once every 15 months. Many employers are struggling to solve the loyalty puzzle; fortunately, there are ways you can cultivate a loyal team.

Why Employee Loyalty is Important

Loyal employees contribute to the overall productivity of teams. When you retain high-value contributors, they maintain consistent output and results. Training and development are focused on adding value, rather ramping someone up to a base level of competency.

Whether you know it or not, employee loyalty also contributes to customer loyalty. If you experience turnover, it impacts the company’s ability to provide consistent service and fractures relationships. Customers are far more loyal to companies when they have long-term relationships with a consistent set of contacts they can reach out to when they need help.

How to Build Employee Loyalty

Loyalty is important to the health of your organization, so use these strategies to build more loyalty among your employees:

• Develop a clear mission and values: If your organization stands for a clear mission and has clear values it lives by, employees are more likely to feel connected to the organization.
• Open communication: Employees trust leaders who communicate with them, even when the information isn’t always positive. Make sure to develop channels for communicating critical company information to employees at all levels, so they see you are committed to transparency.
• Give them a reason to be loyal: Employees won’t feel a sense of loyalty to your organization without a good reason. The best reason is they feel they are treated well. Flexibility, rewards for achievements, good compensation and chances to develop their careers are all good foundations for building loyalty.
• Create a culture of support: The number one reason people leave their jobs is a poor relationship with a boss. Foster a culture where managers are people who provide the tools and support their employees need to succeed.
• Set the tone: Employees look to leadership to set the tone for the organization. If they see leaders and managers criticizing people, products or the company, they won’t feel confident in the organization or their jobs. Model the behaviors and attitudes you want to see.

Loyalty Begins With Hiring Decisions

You can increase retention by making stronger decisions during the hiring process. However, measuring potential loyalty isn’t always easy. If you need to be confident your next candidate sales, marketing or technical hire has staying power, contact the expert agriculture recruiters at Morris Bixby today.