Employee loyalty has to be earned, don’t expect it without taking action

Employee loyalty requires trust.

We value our employees and want the same from them, but it’s not always that easy. Here are our thoughts on what you can do to boost employee loyalty:

Growing interest in employee engagement and turnover reduction has pushed many companies into analyzing employees’ moods by encouraging more feedback and collecting more data. At Founder Shield, we do things like 360 Reviews to collect the data and then figure out ways we can take the feedback we’ve gotten to better work-life.

Finding out how your employees feel is not enough. Asking for feedback is not enough. Employee loyalty is fueled first and foremost by trust. And to win that trust, we need to put the information collected to good use and prove that we’re also invested in this employee engagement partnership.

Follow-up on the data you’ve collected

Now you know how they feel (The U.S. isn’t doing too hot on the Happy Index, so take what your employees say seriously.).

You’ve started off by collecting relevant information and now you have an overview of how your team is feeling by tracking their moods. You also know the main reasons why employees are engaged, or, on the contrary, disengaged.

Real loyalty comes from trusting and respecting the company you work for. Managers are the key link between employee’s interests and the organization’s interests. They are the ones who can align the two interests and create an engaging work environment that fosters employee loyalty.

Here’s what you can do:

• Set up a meeting to discuss the team’s Happy Index and the main engagement drivers identified in your Analytics Dashboard.
• Ask the team to join in an open discussion on how the overall work environment is looking and how they’d like it to look in the future.
• Together with them, set up 3-5 actionable improvements for the next quarter. Take responsibility for ensuring that they are carried out and set a follow-up meeting for that deadline.

You also know what they’re thinking

Once you receive constructive feedback and suggestions on how to address employee engagement issues, it’s time to act. The lack of action taken by many employers is often the reason for failed employee engagement strategies.
The goal of this type of survey is to win employee trust and long-term commitment by proving you value their opinions and respect their privacy

Here’s what you need to do:

• Address every piece of relevant feedback. Commit to taking an action that will resolve it.
• Periodically remind people that you encourage their constructive feedback. Once they’ve come to recognize your involvement in addressing their suggestions, they will become more involved.
• Ask questions to test multiple courses of action that can solve an issue. Get your team involved in following-up on the feedback you’ve received.
• Make a habit of encouraging your team to share new ideas and solutions to different problems.
• Little things matter more than you think. See what you can solve right now. There are always small things that can be tackled without requiring budgets or too much of your time. And they send a powerful message too: that you are interested in the details of their engagement and you care.

We take what our employees say and think seriously and, while it can be hard to show the work that’s done on the backend, it definitely pays off. We do things like peer reviews, AMA’s (Ask Me Anything with Benji and Carl), and 360 Reviews with thorough responses and follow up.

It’s a lengthy process, like any trust-building effort, but it will be worth it. After some time, you should be able to see the benefits of your efforts in lower turnover rates, higher engagement, employee advocacy and, most importantly, employee loyalty. Employee engagement and loyalty is won by people, not systems or tools.

Bottom-line

By preserving a balance between individual and organizational goals, you will be able to instill employee trust and confidence in company objectives. If employees trust you with information and feedback, it’s imperative that you reward that trust through action