“Dis”loyal?
Annie Fisher, senior writer for Fortune, recently authored an article entitled “Loyalty isn’t dead; employers have to earn it”. Annie points to the recent survey results from Fortune’s annual 100 Best Companies to Work For, as compiled by the Great Places to Work Institute, which postulates that loyalty has a direct correlation to employee perks. Annie adds that:
“…even if you treat people as well as you know how (or as well as you can afford to), they won’t hesitate to jump ship - while still considering themselves loyal to you, at least for as long as you’ve got them.”
A quick look at the Loyalty Research Center provides an interesting definition of Employee Loyalty:
“Employee loyalty can be defined as employees being committed to the success of the organization and believing that working for the organization is their best option. Further, they do not actively search for alternative employment and are not responsive to offers that are relatively small in difference.”
Which begs the question of why those simple perks (which incur relatively low “switching costs” on behalf of the employer) allegedly cause such drastic shifts in employee behavior and relative loyality? Not to “dis” the good people at Fortune, but a more fundamental shift - beyond perks - must be driving the roughly 70%+ of individuals that have professed a desire to shape shift employers in the coming year.
Let’s keep the conversation going.