High employee turnover can become a huge drain of time and resources, and will directly affect productivity at your workplace since the constant change results in an unstable work atmosphere. Today, losing an employee can cost the company plenty. Hence, it is important that you learn how to keep each person you hire loyal to you.
To become the type of leader that instills a deep sense of loyalty to the company and to you in each of your employees, you need to ensure that they feel safe in the job, respected as professionals, and that they have a future with the company. Here are a few tips on how to accomplish this:
- Earn the Trust and Respect of Your Employees - It is not enough to be highly qualified. You need to earn the respect of your team members. To do this you need to continuously reflect leadership attributes such as honesty, reliability, sensitivity, humility and high levels of knowledge/expertise. As a leader, you are the path breaker, the "best" the person everyone goes to for decisive answers. In other words, your employee should look up to you because you are worthy of it, not because you instill fear.
- Pay Your Employees Well - Paying appropriate salaries, even in recession times, earns your employees' loyalty faster than you would think. The fact that you have not taken advantage of their vulnerability and you have behaved ethically binds them to the same code of conduct. You will find that paying good salaries are actually more profitable for you in the long run.
- Nurture and Encourage Career Growth - Look at your employees as human beings with dreams, ambitions, issues, and concerns (because they are!). Encourage them to grow professionally by making it easy to acquire new skills/qualifications. Provide counseling and positive feedback that your employees can use to grow more useful within the company. Employees who feel valued and respected for their contribution work harder and are less likely to change jobs.
