When developing a stronger team it is imperative that you build employee loyalty. It’s important to keep and build long-term relationships with employees. Employee retention saves your company money, and it saves you time. 

Not only does employee loyalty save you money, but it creates a more productive workforce. Your employees will work harder, and work better, when they feel loyal to their company, and feel that their leaders are loyal to them. Loyal employees are more likely to go out of their way to solve problems, take initiative to improve your company and motivate the workers around them.

Employee loyalty is an important step in maintaining a healthy and productive work environment. 

So, what are the best ways to build employee loyalty? 

Listen to your employees. 

The first step is to figure out whether the steps you are taking already are working, which means talking to your employees. Ask them questions about their jobs. Check in regularly about their work experience, and maybe even consider periodic employee surveys.

It is important that every leader has good listening skills. Listening to your employees can be the the make or break moment in your relationship with your employees, but it has to go beyond the day-to-day water cooler conversations. Running employee surveys, asking directly for feedback from your employees, and engaging in round table discussions with employees can give them a chance to feel like they are part of the story at your company. This empowers employees and increases their loyalty to your company. 

While listening to your employees, gauge their current loyalty and keep track of where you are as a whole. Are they likely to recommend their friends for jobs with your company? Are they using your product themselves? Are they engaged and active in the workplace? Finding out where the baseline is on employee engagement (whether it’s through a survey or online focus group) can only help you to move up from there, and as you move up and take the following steps, keep an eye on where you started.

Make sure your employees are aware of the value of their role in your company. 

It can be easy for an employee to feel invisible in a large company. They can easily fall into a trap of low self-worth in their job, especially if they feel their efforts are not seen. Making sure they feel visible and valued is often the most important step in increasing employee loyalty. The employee who feels like their job is important is an employee who will stick around. The employee who feels like everyone thinks they are just taken to fill a seat will not put in their full effort, and they are bound to jump ship. 

Pay according to the market.

This may seem obvious but the employee who is struggling financially is going to be the first employee to leave. Research the area your company is based in and make sure you are offering a competitive and living wage. Make sure your employees can afford to remain loyal before you ask them to be loyal. Competitive wages will not only be the reason they stay, but it will be the reason they tell their talented friends to also come work for you. 

Fix the issues with your training process. 

While evaluating employee loyalty and listening to your employees, check-in on training gaps. Do your employees seem confused about what they are supposed to be doing? Are they complaining that there are tasks expected of them that they were never trained on? Do they complain that they are often thrown into new situations without any idea of how to complete those tasks. Fixing training issues will increase your employees confidence on the job, and a confident employee is a loyal employee. 

Create mini-teams within your team. 

Match your staff up with mentors or teams based on what you know about them, and what they have in common both inside of work and out. Encourage them to help each other, to share with one another and to support each other. Give them reason to support one another on the job and create friendships among themselves that go beyond the company holiday party. Plan events that play into shared interests. Making friends out of coworkers is a guaranteed way to increase their loyalty to their job. No one wants to let down their friends. 

Be honest. 

Asking your employees to open up to you isn’t enough. You have to be transparent and honest with them. Don’t hide important things from your staff. Don’t pretend there are not issues in areas that there clearly are and don’t gaslight your employees when they tell you something isn’t working. Above that, also keep your employees informed about company progress. Celebrate milestones as a team and make sure they know that they were a part in your company achieving that milestone. Make them aware that the company’s success is their success. 

Don’t hold onto a bad apple. 

Don’t hold onto bad employees, especially bad employees who are in leadership roles. An ineffective leader can break a team up faster than anything else. An ineffective leader can destroy employee confidence, drive away good staff members and bring down the best of teams. Work with your staff to improve, but when you have identified that a staff member just isn’t working, don’t hold onto them so long that it ruins the rest of your team. 

Find ways to make technology work for you.

Technology offers us new ways to approach employee loyalty. Using technology can be a great way to increase employee loyalty in refreshing ways. Email threads celebrating employee milestones, surveys gathering information and maybe even a social media location for employees to share personal stories can all increase employee loyalty. 

Employee loyalty is an important thing to consider for your business. It is not enough to increase sales if you are losing employees and constantly having to hire and train new staff. Training and hiring is expensive and time-consuming. Increasing employee loyalty can be a game-changer for your company and should be taken seriously.