Why employee loyalty strategies matter more than ever
Showing recognition and appreciation doesn’t have to be difficult or elaborate.
Recent years have been an ongoing improvisation for all of us. We’ve been in a near-constant state of adjustment as we respond to the changing circumstances of the world around us — especially as it influences our personal and professional lives. All that change prompted many to reexamine their expectations about how work dovetails into (or doesn’t) our daily life.
Hence, the Great Resignation, the term being applied to the unprecedented number of workers deciding to leave their positions — 47.8 million in 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Now, as the pandemic becomes less acute and indicators show the country inching closer to a recession, U.S. workers are returning to work. For example, CNBC recently published an article citing that 26% of employees who quit their jobs over the past two years regret their decision and are now coming back to the workforce.
But, as employees return to work, it’s unlikely they’re walking in the door with the same expectations as before the pandemic shifted our experience and mindsets so significantly. That prompts a key question: How do employers navigate the altered expectations and perspectives to recruit new talent and retain your current team?
In the tumult of the pandemic, companies demonstrated their potential to be nimble and flexible, successfully shifting to a largely remote workforce — almost overnight — and carried on with the course of business. In the face of an ultra-competitive labor market, it’s time to leverage that same agility to rethink employee loyalty.
Companies have been using loyalty programs for years to attract and retain customers. The most successful use strategies designed to convey to customers that they’re known, recognized, and valued for their loyalty and, further, that they’ll be rewarded for that loyalty. Those same core ideas can be applied to workforce engagement to build and maintain employee loyalty.
OK, great. How do we that? Begin by considering how you’d like to be rewarded for your continued loyalty to an employer.
Begin with recognition and appreciation
These two ideas form the core of all successful loyalty strategies, and the great news is, employers can offer employees both every day.
According to recent research, the average person spends 90,000 hours at work — around one-third to one-quarter of a lifetime. Given the scope of that commitment, employees need to feel their contributions matter.
Showing recognition and appreciation doesn’t have to be difficult or elaborate. In fact, simple gestures go a long way. Set up an internal monthly award program to recognize an employee or team who demonstrate outstanding work. Provide a coffee-shop gift card for putting in extra hours on a project or working over the weekend. Establishing a framework that encourages managers to recognize individual contributions goes a long way toward making employees feel appreciated and their work seen.
Offer incentives and rewards
Consumer loyalty programs offer a century’s worth of evidence that incentives and rewards foster loyalty. As an Incentive Research Foundation study found, “properly constructed incentive programs can increase performance by as much as 44%.” People want to be recognized and rewarded for their performance and behavior — it’s human nature.
In traditional loyalty strategy programs, tiered approaches (e.g., entry-level membership followed by earned elite tiers) create consumer engagement, spend and/or investment. This same philosophy can inspire and motivate employees — and a tiered approach could be an excellent way to create loyalty throughout your organization.
An incentive or rewards framework for employees could take various forms. Managers might set reward benchmarks that recognize achievements above and beyond expectations and provide incentives for those who exceed baseline performance. Rewards might take the form of a pay bonus or additional PTO. By celebrating individual achievements, you motivate employees to do their best work. You create an atmosphere of appreciation that encourages achievement by all. A win-win.
Another way to recognize and reward employees is incentivizing educational advancement. Whether it be rewarding an employee for taking a LinkedIn learning course or pursuing an advanced degree or specialized certification, acknowledge and reward that investment. Your organization will benefit from the knowledge and insights gained.
Show your loyalty
Loyalty goes both ways. The most loyal employees are those whose employers demonstrate loyalty in return. Your trust in your employees’ judgment and integrity are one of your most important long-term investments that will yield tangible and intangible returns over time.
Trust your team to do their jobs. Allow them to seize new challenges and resist the urge to micromanage. Let them structure their workdays in whatever ways they find most productive. Extend your empathy and grace when an employee is dealing with family emergencies, medical issues, mental health, and other challenges. Acknowledge that sometimes work interferes with personal obligations, and personal circumstances may occasionally impact their workdays.
One of the main ways you can differentiate yourself from other employers is by fostering in-house loyalty — employee focused loyalty strategies can give you a conspicuous and lasting advantage in finding and keeping top-notch talent. Be the employer you’d want to work for, and your employees will become your biggest ambassadors.
Tess MacGibbon serves as senior director, thought leadership for The Lacek Group, a Minneapolis-based data-driven loyalty, experience and customer engagement agency that has been delivering personalization at scale for its world-class clients for more than 25 years. The Lacek Group is an Ogilvy Experience company.