Four Ways to Improve Employee Loyalty and Satisfaction

In an economic atmosphere in which top paying jobs offering quality health insurance and retirement benefits are not nearly as easy to come by as they were once were, the last thing an employer should expect from his employees is loyalty. When workers can never be sure whether their may be shipped overseas so the company can save money by rolling back expenses like insurance and retirement benefits and high wages, the question that must be posed is why any American worker below the position at which he receives a title and a private office has any loyalty whatsoever to his employer. The answer is simple: because he is working for a boss that understands the reality of the situation and has taken steps to address employee satisfaction. How can this miracle occur? Here are a few quality suggestions.

Higher Pay
Nothing keeps an employee from bolting to another job better than a healthy paycheck. The company that provides high wages and performance bonuses is going to experience a much more robust atmosphere of employee loyalty than the company that immediately looks to trimming labor costs in an effort to save themselves from all the other bad business decisions they made.

Training and Continuing Education
Another excellent means of inspiring employees to stay with you even when enticed by a higher salary to bolt to one of your competitors is the institution of a program that provides paid training and at least some sort of financial assistance for continuing education. You can count on increasing the potential for employee loyalty by offering to pay for college classes, paying for employees to attend conferences and seminars and extending opportunities for training that can result in advancement as a result of gaining new skills.

Performance Reviews and Rewards
Employees will be more likely to actively engage in becoming better workers if they know their work is being noticed and appreciated. Regular performance reviews instill confidence in employees that the company is taking note of their contributions and are offering rewards for a job well done. The performance review process can also have the effect of revealing which employees are not doing their fare share, which can result in a more efficient and open working environment.

Improved Working Conditions

If you really want to make sure that you can keep a good employee from taking a hike to accept a better paying job, take note of the conditions in which he works. Steps ranging from providing more spacious cubicles to upgrading and maintaining the bathroom to providing free donuts and coffee or installing a soft drink vending machine in the employee lounge can increase worker loyalty. If the worker honestly believes that you are aware of working conditions beneath your executive suite and that you are making a concerted effort to improve those conditions, that worker is much more likely to stick with the devil he knows than take a chance on a devil he doesn’t. (There are no angels in the world of American commerce: get used to it.)