Is your workforce loyal to your company or self-motivated? If your business suddenly went through a very bad patch, which of your employees would stay and work all the harder to get you out of it, and which would look for new jobs? More often than not, the answer to that question depends on the type of company you have, the type of culture you have fostered, and the type of hiring you have done.

Employee loyalty is a very different concept than it was 30 years ago. Back then, people got jobs and stayed with the same company for their entire careers, receiving pensions and gold watches upon retiring after then end of a lifetime of service. That doesn't happen so much todaybut it can. You can create a more loyal workforce. All it takes is a little loyalty and innovation on your part. If you put forth the effort, it will boost your bottom line.

Admittedly this next point is a generalization but, smaller, family-owned companies tend to have more loyal employees than do large, corporately-owned ones. That's because employees in smaller companies know and identify with the people at the top, and those in the upper echelons know the namesand oftentimes the family membersof everyone on their payroll. It's personal. It's a family.

But that doesn't mean larger companies can't have loyal, familial workforces. It's true that in a company with 1,000-plus employees, it's not always possible for the CEO to know everyone's name. But it is possible to create a more personal atmosphere.

Here are a few ways to do just that:

" Create a blog from your CEO on your website.
This is especially useful if you've got a very large company in which most employees don't ever interact with the top brass. Most companies have corporate websites, and on them, it's very easy to create a blog. (If you don't know what a blog is, ask any person under the age of 30.) Title the blog something like: View from the Corner Office or 411 from the CEO, and ask your CEO and perhaps other top brass to write regularly. This shouldn't be a formal memo to employees or any other type of formal communication generated in your PR office this is a place where the CEO can become a regular human being in the eyes of his or her employees. It's a place for the CEO to share thoughts, ideas, comments and even humor. It's a way for a legion of employees to get to know their CEO, even if the CEO can't possibly know all of them.

" Make loyalty part of your mission statement.
If you want employees to be loyal to your company, you need to be loyal to them. It starts with putting loyalty on that mission statement hanging on the wall, and it comes to fruition when your employees realize the top brass is making business decisions based on the foundation that employees are the greatest resource they have.

" Realize that loyalty means less turnover.
It's all well and good to talk about values like loyalty, but the bottom line is what ultimately floats or sinks a business. Happily, loyalty is good for your bottom line. Employees who feel loyal to a company, and who feel the company is loyal to them, stick around, even through the tough times.

" Test for loyalty in hiring.
Tests for character traits can uncover a whole lot of truths about the people you're considering for any specific job, including loyalty.

In conclusion, loyalty may have been blindsided during the era of downsizing and layoffs, but it's not an old-fashioned notion. It's something that will create a better workforce and a more robust bottom line.




Charlie Wonderlic is the President and CEO of Wonderlic Inc., a premiere provider of employee recruitment, selection, development and retention solutions. For more information about customized hiring solutions from Wonderlic, visit www.wonderlic.com