Loyalty, Retention and Caring
by Miki Saxon
An excellent article on loyalty citing research from various Wharton professors on the subject of worker loyalty is a valuable read.
It’s good for bosses and employees alike; the former can use it to analyze and improve their approach, while the latter can give a printout (anonymously, if necessary) to their boss.
One of the most valuable findings is that in some ways nothing has changed on the employee retention front over the years.
Human nature, Harter adds, “doesn’t change when the economy changes. It might take on a different dynamic” during a recession, but what remains constant is “the need to be connected — to a manager, a co-worker and/or a purpose, and also the need to be recognized.” People’s perceptions of their own standards of living “did drop as the economy dropped,” he says. But that same drop was not registered in workplaces where employees said they have “someone who encourages their development. There is something about having a mentor, or someone in your life who helps you see the future in the midst of chaos, that can make a difference.”
Wharton marketing professor Deborah Small cites a body of research on what is called “procedural fairness,” indicating that much of what employees feel about an organization “is not the outcomes they get, but the processes. If people feel like processes are handled fairly in the organization, even if they don’t get the best for themselves,” that would tend to encourage loyalty.
Recognition, fairness, being valued and encouraged to grow are still the most powerful intangibles when it comes to retention and their source is still the immediate boss and maybe their boss.
As I wrote last year, caring begets caring and the actions that show you care aren’t found in compensation packages.
Flickr image credit: fsse8info
