Employee loyalty is more complex. It’s more transactional
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This contribution is by Anupam GoelAnupam Goel, Physician Executive who specializes in using technology to support scalable solutions that achieve greater value for our healthcare spend. Also to reimagine care delivery to be more patient-centered.
«Loyalty is considered a virtue in most situations: among friends, family and football fans. However, employee loyalty is more complex. It is more transactional. Friends do not give each other performance reviews or fire each other for cost reasons. It is less reciprocal. A worker may feel attachment to a company and a company may feel nothing (which is why people often feel more loyal to individual team members and bosses than to their organizations). .
Research published earlier this year by Matthew Stanley of Duke University
Matthew Stanley and his co-authors looked at how bosses felt about loyal workers. The researchers asked managers how willing they were to ask a fictitious employee named John to work unpaid overtime.
If John was described as loyal, then bosses were happier to give him more work. The opposite also applied: Workers who did more unrewarded work were more likely to be described by managers as loyal. Remember that dogs are known for their loyalty, but not their brains.
Employers tend to have a clear vision about what generates loyalty
Retention bonuses are an admission that your best employees might need a little push to stay. Real loyalty tends to reap paltry rewards: an extra week of vacation for 25 years of service?
The equivalent value of an employee in the market
Netflix encourages its employees to talk to recruiters so they know their value on the open market and so they can respond with counteroffers (an approach that makes more sense when you’re willing to pay a lot of money and less if you’re in the nonprofit sector. profit).
However, companies can hold on to the idea of loyalty
The group of employees who left Shockley Semiconductor Lab in the 1950s to found Fairchild Semiconductor were known as the «Traitor Eight.»
Some of that attitude still prevails. But unless you are a member of the mafia or a cleric, joining a competitor is neither treason nor heresy.
In fact, boomerang hires (people who leave an employer and then return) can offer a valuable combination of known quantity and new skills.
Workers want to believe in a company and belong to it
They are confident that it guarantees them much of their finite time on Earth. It is better overall, for job satisfaction and performance, if employees stay because they feel involved in your organization than because they don’t have a better offer.
But loyalty in the workplace is a self-interested decision, not a moral one. It should depend on being treated well, not on a habit that is harder to break. Stay where you are because you like it, not because leaving would be immoral.»
Why staff loyalty is not always good
Faithful workers tend to invest more time and effort in their jobs. But not everything is rosy. This is the thesis of Anjli Raval, who is the Management Editor of the Financial Times. Anjli reports on boards of directors, corporate governance, what is happening inside the world’s largest companies and the future.
How many bosses could count on their employees threatening to quit en masse if they were abruptly fired? Sam Altman received such a show of support from more than 700 employees after being fired from Open AI that the board quickly reinstated him.
But this level of loyalty is not typical and may not always be a good thing.
Loyalty in the workplace is something more complicated
Loyalty is associated with being “moral and honest,” particularly when it comes to family, friends, and romantic partners. In the workplace it is more complicated. It may be rational (I work here because they pay me a decent salary and the commute isn’t terrible); emotional (I believe my work is valued, my opinions are heard and I want to contribute to the future of this company); or more likely a little of both.
Management experts say that staff who are loyal to their employer tend to invest more time and effort in their jobs, which helps create an engaged, higher-performing workplace. In turn, they receive promotions and salary increases. They have a greater sense of belonging and potentially a longer career in the same organization.
But not everything is rosy. According to a 2021 academic paper, people who are overly loyal are more likely to take actions that are considered unethical to keep their jobs and protect their employer.
Others may overlook irregularities and be less likely to expose corruption by whistleblowing.
Loyalty is sometimes considered to be such a positive force that it can be used to justify bad behavior.
Often, companies and top bosses are the real winners of employee loyalty.
Research led by Matthew Stanley of Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business
It was published this year and found that managers were more likely to exploit loyal people. Stanley recruited nearly 1,400 managers to read about a fictional 29-year-old employee named John, who worked for a company trying to keep costs down.
They had to decide how willing they would be to ask John to work longer hours and accept more work without paying more. The researchers created several scenarios, including rating John as loyal versus other traits as honest and fair. Managers were more willing to ask loyal John to take on the burden of unpaid work.
“Employers take advantage of loyal and passionate workers because they believe that for [them] the work itself is its own reward,” says Neil Lewis, associate professor of communication and social behavior at Cornell University and author of the 2021 paper .
“It’s a double-edged sword: loyalty has benefits for both employees and companies, but it can also prevent us from seeing and doing things that need to change. It is helpful to periodically step back and reflect on why we are loyal to specific people, things or ideas.”
Offset skilled worker shortages, reduce attrition and cut hiring costs
Companies are trying to increase loyalty among staff to help offset a shortage of skilled workers, reduce attrition and cut hiring costs.
According to Gallup, 50% of those surveyed were looking for a new job
Consulting firm Gallup’s latest State of the Workplace report showed that half of the 122,416 employees who participated in a global survey were looking for a new job. “You can’t guarantee that anyone will stay these days,” says a consultant who advises boards of directors.
This is particularly true for younger generations, many of whom think differently about being attached to a company for decades.
One headhunter told me that the corporate bosses she works with tend to believe that new graduates are less “forced” than previous generations and are not as willing to tolerate what they perceive as abuse.
Less trust in bosses
They trust their bosses less and are not as patient when it comes to career advancement, and see little benefit in keeping their heads down and following orders if they don’t see results quickly.
Not all companies can offer financial rewards (such as stock, higher salaries, and bonuses), so they are turning to other tactics.
But wellness offerings like meditation apps do little to combat burnout. Shopping discount vouchers pale in comparison to a pay rise.
There are more meaningful ways to inspire loyalty, such as recognizing good work, empowering staff, eliminating toxicity and communicating better
This can go a long way in making employees feel appreciated and motivated.
Still, tracking loyalty is complicated beyond looking at raw metrics like employee turnover.
Some companies obsess over employee engagement, a broader measure that includes the emotional and psychological involvement a person has in their job.
“Emotional loyalty is longer term. Rational loyalty is fickle,” says Jeremie Brecheisen of Gallup, who helps companies track engagement.
Scholars like Cornell’s Lewis point out that it’s also important for employers to ask themselves whether they have earned the loyalty of their staff. “Why should your employees be loyal to you? What do you do on a regular basis to ensure they have a meaningful and rewarding experience while working for you?
He adds that staff tend to respond to more cooperative relationships
“If I see that you are trying to help me, I will do my part to help you too. That effort on the part of employers can cultivate the feeling that “we are all in this together.”
The most overrated trait of the decade
HR Morning’s editorial staff is led by veteran editor-in-chief Tim Gould, who is responsible for the following contribution
It never hurts to ask ourselves the following questions that Tim Gould asks:
-Was there ever really a time when people felt loyal to their employers?
– And is loyalty really what you’re looking for?
And then he says that everyone has heard about how loyalty has disappeared from the employment relationship, on both sides.
In the past, the narrative goes, employers treated workers like family and there was a bond between management and workers that went beyond daily productivity.
In a recent post on Knowledge@Wharton, the blog of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, several professors commented on the current state of employee attitudes.
Management professor Adam Cobb says it’s all about power:
“When you talk about loyalty in the workplace, you have to think of it as a reciprocal exchange,” he says. “My loyalty to the company depends on my company’s loyalty to me.
«But there is a part in that exchange that has much more power: the company.»
Cobb sees the 1980s as the beginning of the end of worker loyalty: “We started to see healthy companies laying off workers, primarily for shareholder value.” Health insurance costs began to be passed on to employees; pension funds closed in favor of 401(k) plans. Keep in mind that unlike traditional pensions, 401(k) plans are defined contribution plans. Employers create a retirement plan in which their employees can contribute a portion of their pre-tax wages, up to an amount determined by the IRS.
«The tendency was for the risks to fall on the workers and not on the companies,» Cobb said.
«If I’m an employee, that’s a sign to me that I’m not going to let companies control my career.»
Where does your loyalty really lie?
Management professor Matthew Bidwill notes that “there is less of a sense that your organization is going to look after you like it used to, which would lead you to expect a reduction in loyalty as well.”
But here’s where he deviates from the traditional view: Bidwill isn’t sure employees have ever been so loyal to their organizations, regardless of the economic climate.
“Employees tend to be more loyal to those around them: their manager, their colleagues, and perhaps their customers. These employees have a sense of professionalism (and loyalty) that relates more to the work they do than to the company.”
Bingo: There is an opportunity for employers to strengthen their relationship with workers.
Loyalty versus commitment
It’s pretty clear: in today’s workplace, loyalty and commitment are two different things.
Study after study has shown what makes people stay at their current employer.
A checklist:
– interesting and challenging work
– advancement opportunities and
– collegiate workforce
– fair compensation
– a respected manager
– recognition for achievement
– feel like a valuable member of a team
– a substantial benefits package
– the feeling that your work “makes a difference” and
– general pride in the company’s mission and its products.
Loyalty doesn’t seem to play a big role in that wish list.
What can your managers do? There is certainly no shortage of opinions on how managers motivate, nurture and reward employees, and how they make them want to stay.
But many of these theories emphasize the practical aspects of managers’ behavior, as in «you should praise at least three employees in your department every day.»
That approach tends to overlook the key question: what do employees want from their jobs on an emotional level?
Here’s a summary of the things that experts say resonate most with employees and make them want to stay:
– Clear expectations. Simple enough: Workers want to know exactly what they are responsible for and what they will be judged for.
– A feeling of control. Employees are not robots. They need to feel that they have the power to decide how their jobs can be completed and the freedom to suggest how tasks can be simplified or streamlined.
– Feel that they are “in the know”. Employees not only want to know (and participate in) what is happening in their department, but also what is happening in the company as a whole.
And they want to be sure they understand how what they do day to day fits into the overall operation, now and in the future.
– Room to grow. These include possible promotions, additional training, learning new skills, and the possibility of using those new skills in a different area of the company.
– Recognition. Everyone wants to believe that their extra effort will not go unnoticed or rewarded.
– Leadership. Employees want to be managed by people they trust. And the people they trust are those who value workers’ contributions, recognize and accept differences between people, and act with employees’ best interests in mind.
Are you too loyal to your organization?
This contribution corresponds to Zachariah Berry, Neil Lewis, Jr. and Walter Sowden of whom we highlight the following: Zachariah Berry is a doctoral student in organizational behavior at the School of Labor and Industrial Relations at Cornell University; Neil Lewis, Jr. is a behavioral scientist and assistant professor at Cornell University and Weill Cornell Medicine; Walter Sowden is an active-duty research psychologist (U.S. Army) at Tripler Army Medical Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, and an assistant professor at the Uniform Services University of the Health Sciences.
Loyalty has many benefits at work. Without it, there is little trust, commitment or sense of team.
But there is also the overvaluation of loyalty or blind loyalty. Both research and real life have shown that overly loyal people are more likely to engage…more
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