Studies and stories are released every day that confirm employees are feeling less loyal towards their employer, less motivated and more stressed at work. The latest study, conducted by CareerBuilder, shows that 24% of workers say they no longer feel loyal to their current employer and 19% plan to move to a new job this year.
What happened to employee loyalty? You could point the finger at the recession for creating a workplace where employees feel overworked and underappreciated (not to mention fearful for their jobs). However, this recession has only highlighted and exasperated a shift in employee loyalty that has already taken place.
Employee loyalty isn’t dead; it’s just no longer about being loyal to a company. It’s about being loyal to your team, your colleagues, your manager and the projects you work on.
“In the past, loyalty was vertical,” says Daniel Pink, author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. “The organization was on top and it provided security down to the individual.”
Employee loyalty is now horizontal, and companies that realize this are in a better position to retain their employees, especially their top performers, who may leave the company when the job market picks up.
How can a company take advantage of horizontal loyalty, and use horizontal loyalty to increase morale, retention and morale? Recognition is part of the solution, so here are two ways to use recognition to increase horizontal loyalty. For more ways to build a loyal team read Richard Leyland’s BNET article, 7 Ways to Build a Loyal Team.
Praise good work and spotlight employees at team meetings
Make a point to recognize a team’s accomplishment or individual’s standout performance. Employees leave their jobs not because of their colleagues, but because of their boss. A manager who can inspire employees to reach peak performance by recognizing contributions in a meaningful way, will be successful in building a top performing team.
Workopolis for example, holds regular townhall meetings where the president publically recognizes individuals. It’s a great way to show Workopolis employees that their work is appreciated and acknowledged.
Make recognition democratic
Allow free-flowing recognition. Traditionally, companies have had a vertical, top-down approach to recognizing employees. Just like employee loyalty, there has been a shift in the way employees want to be recognized and by who they want to be recognized by.
Montana’s, a restaurant chain with 87 locations nationally, implemented a peer-to-peer recognition program that allows employees to recognize one another for performing positive behaviors such as excellent customer service and teamwork. In the first three months of the program launch, peer recognitions totaled 824, and in the first six month, member and program activity increased 182%.
