Quint's Column: Earning employee loyalty


  • November 7, 2018
  • /   Quint Studer
  • /   training-development
Quint Studer
It’s a tale no one likes to hear. When a company is poorly led, goals are not met, revenue falls behind, and expenses are trimmed. People are let go. And too often, it’s the workforce that pays the price for an organization’s poor leadership. The hourly-paid employees, or lower-level managers, are the ones who are removed, not those top leaders whose leadership failed to produce the needed results. This seems to be the reverse of what should happen. 

Usually, the people at the very top do just fine. In fact, the company may even call it a restructure and top leaders end up in a better place. Yes, there are times when the CEO is replaced. However, their pain is often cushioned with a large severance package. 

Of course, there are those companies that do try their best to provide the employees who were let go with some sort of severance package. However, after this package wears out, the employee can be hard-pressed to find a job that pays as much as their previous one. 

In these kinds of situations, there can be bad feelings on the part of leaders and employees. Leaders may feel guilty that they couldn’t keep the employees on, and employees may feel upset that their loyalty hasn’t been honored. The root of the problem is that there’s a lot of misunderstanding around the subject. Loyalty doesn’t mean what people think it does. 

The way many people think about employer/employee loyalty is a holdover from the days when employees stayed with the same company for an entire career. This rarely happens anymore and this isn’t a bad thing. It doesn’t mean that loyalty doesn’t or shouldn’t exist. We just need to reframe the way we think about loyalty and what it means long-term.

Over the years, company executives have asked me, “How can I get my employees to be loyal to the company?” First, I tell them, “The employees are not your employees unless you own the company. They are employees of the company in which you have been entrusted to provide leadership. Even if you own the company, don’t expect, nor should you get, blind loyalty. Loyalty is earned.”

Years ago, I read a book called Working Without a Net: How to Survive & Thrive in Today’s High-Risk Business World by Morris Shechtman. One chapter described the relationship between a company and an employee as reciprocal. The company owes the employee a good place to work, and the employee owes the company a good day’s work.

Each day this relationship is either made better, stays the same, or gets worse. Yet I feel at times there are unrealistic expectations on both sides. The company expects long-term loyalty when they can’t promise the same. The employee may expect long-term employment when a company can’t guarantee it. Both sides understanding the reciprocity of the relationship will lead to a healthier outcome. 

Here is a story that demonstrates what a reciprocal relationship looks like:

Once, an executive came to a company and signed a two-year contract. Periodically, the employees would ask him how long he was going to stay, since he was well liked. His answer was “I can guarantee I will be here until ____ (and he would give the date of the last day of the contract).” This executive was soon called to corporate headquarters. They explained that when he gave the date of his last day of the contract it created anxiety and that they hoped he would be there for a very long time. 

Hearing this, the executive shared that he would love to have a long-term agreement. The corporate leaders then said they don’t give those agreements. In a very appropriate way, he shared that he would work very hard until the end of his agreement and then do the same for any other agreements that were made after that. A company should not expect anyone to give them more loyalty than they provide to that person. 

Here is another story about how loyalty and reciprocity play out:

I received a call from a woman asking my advice. She had submitted her resignation and even provided the company with a longer-than-required notice. Her supervisor called her and asked her to stay quite a bit longer. She shared with me that she really was ready to move on yet felt lots of pressure to stay longer. My advice was it was completely her call. If she felt like working longer, she could; however, if she felt like leaving and gave a more-than-appropriate notice, she should not feel guilty.

Imagine that the roles were reversed. If the company had told her they were reducing staff and gave her four weeks’ notice, if she asked for more, I doubt they would say, “Sure, stay longer.” The reality was she had given years of great service to the company. As long as she gave sufficient notice regarding her departure, there would be no need for her to feel she owed the company more. If, when leaving a job, the company asks for more time and it works for the employee, it is a nice win-win. If it doesn’t, no disloyalty has occurred.

Once both parties realize they are in a reciprocal relationship, they are already on the right path. Loyalty means living up to the agreement both have signed up for and treating each other with respect. With this mutual understanding, the employer and employee can build a better, more loyal, more mutually beneficial relationship one day at a time. 

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