4 Ways to Encourage Employee Loyalty

Employee loyalty can be described as an overarching term for a range of emotions that make employees more likely to stay with their current employer. While the concept of employee loyalty is a relatively simple one, loyalty is not something that is given overnight. Luckily, there are several things you can do to help encourage employee loyalty and improve staff retention in your business.

Empower Your Employees for Success

Equipping your business and employees with solutions that are well-designed and easy to use will allow your employees more time to do what you are paying them for and waste less time fighting against obtuse systems. This is especially true for employees who interact directly with clients through helpdesks and hotlines.

A great example of this is the cash back API solution offered by Loyalize, a company whose goal is to empower other businesses through the use of cash backs on online purchases to encourage customer and employee loyalty. Their easy-to-implement API solution allows for immediate offering of cash back across thousands of US online stores which can be used to encourage employee loyalty, while Loyalize’s in-depth end-to-end tracking and user-level reporting will yield additional insights on individual shopping behaviors.

Ask For, And Use, Their Feedback

Giving and receiving feedback is an important yet often overlooked aspect of employee management that can make or break a team of people. Giving employees the chance to give honest feedback in a safe environment is important because it makes them feel like a valuable part of the team and the business as a whole. However, taking in feedback and never acting on it can hurt your employees’ loyalty, as this can make them feel like their opinions do not matter and demotivate them, causing a knock-on effect on the efficiency and productivity of the business as a whole.

If this goes on for long enough, unmotivated employees may decide to search for jobs that make them feel valued and important. Creating a positive feedback loop in your business is therefore imperative if you want to retain your employees but doing so requires a safe and comfortable work environment.

Prioritize Creating A Safe and Positive Work Environment

An employee who is worried about the way their boss will react to the feedback they give will never be able to be completely honest, which in turn can lead to them feeling demotivated and uninspired. In addition to this, thanks to the long hours that employees will spend working together, having a work environment that is toxic or negative can have huge implications on the long-term success of a business.

That is why it is important for businesses to prioritize building and maintaining a safe and positive work environment. This can be done in several ways, starting with the hiring and onboarding process. Right from the start, employees should be made to feel supported and uplifted and they should have access to the information they need to perform their tasks well. They should feel like their opinions matter but also that they can give their honest, constructive feedback without fear of repercussions, even when discussing uncomfortable topics.

Understand the Risks of Offering Incentives

While offering incentives and perks has long been cited as a good way to retain staff, some experts now believe that they can have a negative effect on motivation and productivity. Contrary to what people have believed for many years, some studies have shown that people who expect a reward for completing a task did not perform as well as those who expected no reward. In addition, it has been found that rewards do not create lasting commitments, such as enhanced loyalty, as the change they create lasts only as long as the reward is offered.

Businesses should therefore evaluate their incentive packages and perks carefully to ensure they don’t fall into the trap of creating a workforce that only operates well under specific conditions, i.e.. when a reward is on offer.

Being successful in the business world can be difficult, and many small businesses fail in their first few years for a variety of reasons. One of the best ways to ensure the success of your business is to have the right team of people in place to ensure it has the best footing in the marketplace. However, this process doesn’t end at the hiring stage. Retaining good employees is an important step in ensuring the smooth running of your business, so making sure you stay on top of this aspect of your business is important if you wish to achieve long-term success.