11 Best Practices To Make Employees Loyal And Committed

But it’s easier said than done.

It requires a lot of work and time: You must adopt best practices to win employees’ loyalty and support.

The thumb rule is if you take responsibility to keep employees happy, they keep your business happy.

Otherwise, studies have proved that many employees leave due to bad managers.

After researching and experiencing for years, I have found that great leaders and managers can use the 11 best practices to make employees loyal and committed.

To make employees loyal, be loyal first.

Employee loyalty begins with employer loyalty.

– Harvey Mackay

Loyalty is an emotional attachment. Any emotional attachment is one-to-one bonding. If you are loyal to the employees, it will magically encourage employees to be loyal.

So the shortcut to making employees loyal is to be loyal to them.

You should remember that this can’t be 100% true because of many external factors.

You might not know the circumstances your employees are living in.

So to make them even more loyal, you should also understand their life goals, purposes, and hardships.

All this will make you realize their potential, and then you can take the optimal according to their abilities and potential.

Once you adopt this habit, employees will feel more engaged and loyal to the organization.

Value their role

Researchers have proved that humans strive to feel valued. Value leads to trust, and trust makes people loyal.

Thus valuing employees is another best practice to make employees loyal to their work.

If you do not value your employees or their roles, they will be less involved. They will keep dreaming of some valuable jobs. The reason is that everyone wants to make a difference.

Here is an example.

A manager must value every employee’s role, no matter how big or small the position is. Even your sweeper should realize he is doing an important task and cleanliness is a core of company values.

Secondly, if they don’t work properly, it will negatively impact employees’ performance.

In short, making them realize they are as important as any other employee will make them feel valued and loyal to the company.

There could be many other ways to recognize and value your employees. I use the simplest one in my organization: I regularly nominate an employee of the month.

It makes employees emotionally attached to the institution and value their jobs.

Some great leaders send work anniversary messages to their teams to make them realize that their existence matters and they are getting your attention.

Additionally, valuing employees also helps you attract and retain loyal employees.

Appreciation

Appreciation is one of the best practices to make people loyal to your company. This practice even works equally for bad employees.

Psychologists agree that all humans love to be appreciated. Appreciation makes us feel that leaders notice us and that our work is significant in their business.

And the fantastic thing about appreciation is that it costs nothing.

In the book “One Minute Manager,” Kenneth Blanchard says that even one minute of appreciation is enough to make people feel valued and take responsibility for their work.

But unfortunately, 59% of Americans reported (in a poll) that their managers never appreciated them. The fact is that if managers spend time as they should, it will induce loyalty. Here is how managers should spend time in the workplace.

Not valuing employees makes them feel disappointed and less productive.

A study found that 66% of employees would rather quit their jobs if managers did not appreciate them.

Many successful businesses keep appreciation an integral part of their business. They have realized that it matters the most.

Even if an employee is going against business values, don’t say anything publically.

A couple of days ago, I made a mistake. I mistakenly got a little harsh publicly, which was an awful decision.

Later, I realized he was not a bad employee, so I tried to make him know that as he was going against the organization’s core values, I couldn’t stop myself.

So instead of treating employees negatively, you should find better ways to make constructive criticism.

Empowerment

Empowering your employees makes them feel authoritative, which leads to value, trust, and a sense of responsibility.

Allowing your employees to make small decisions without their boss’s confirmation makes them feel empowered, ultimately leading to loyalty.

For instance, you can permit your sales officer that he can sell something at a 2% discount whenever needed. They will feel empowered.

You might also notice that they DO NOT offer that 2% discount to everyone. They will fantasize about it, make it even more special, and provide that discount for their fellows to prove their empowerment.

Some companies allow employees to spend up to a few hundred dollars to solve clients’ problems.

There must be many other things belonging to your startup or company that you can allow your employee to empower.

Trust

When you truly trust your employees, they are more likely to be loyal. No one likes to break trust. There could be many logical reasons, but it hurts their self-esteem.

When you trust an employee, you believe he is responsible, does his work correctly, and puts all his energy into making things happen. You make them realize that you trust them. You are happy with their efforts.

And somehow, you manage to tell them.

All this makes them loyal to your business.

This might temporarily sound difficult, but it is one of the characteristics of great managers and leaders.

If you manage to do that, it will create a positive change in the workplace. You will face fewer problems managing employees and will get more time to focus on important things.

Money plays a huge role.

Money is an essential ingredient of life. We all work for money. At least in the earlier days, we work hard to improve our lives.

And nothing wrong with hard work: I appreciate that from the bottom of my heart. It’s how we differentiate and challenge ourselves. It’s how we prove ourselves.

But what if our efforts are not bringing the right results? It won’t be enjoyable.

It’s said that poverty can convince you to sell your faith.

So fame, recognition, and value are all secondary things. Money is the most powerful tool to keep employees loyal.

So you must pay them at least equal to the average of leading companies’ salaries.

If you have recently started your startup and can’t afford to offer handsome salaries, the best way is to be transparent with the employees.

Tell them the truth, and make them sure that you understand their issues and that you will reconsider your offers in the following quarters.

Like the founder of Ali Baba, Jack Ma, did in the very early days. He became transparent and told the employees that he understood everything and would take care of everyone in the upcoming days once he started making something.

Truth has its powers. If you are loyal to the employees, most of them will compromise on low salaries.

Work on their personal growth

Tony Robbins once said in his book that happiness comes with growth.

If you keep working on the personal growth of your employees, you are updating them to the next level. This will more likely make them stay longer. They will realize that they are building their self-worth while staying here.

Over time, they will realize you have invested in them, making them loyal.

One of my employees said she is more likely to work with me because she learns many things daily.

We struggle to make them do their best quickly; this way, we make them practically more helpful and valued.

In short, we sharpen their saw.

It might sound costly to work on, but it won’t be as expensive as you think.

If your managers (practically always) know about employees’ work, they can train and push them to the following levels over time.

Secondly, you can offer many inexpensive short pieces of training, courses, and relevant books. All this will upgrade their minds.

Keep them engaged

As we have discussed in valuing employees, if a sweeper understands that his work directly influences all the employees, and it’s scientifically proven, he will get more engaged with the work.

We all want to do valuable things.

The only problem sometimes can be a lack of support. If you offer them essential tasks and don’t give support, it won’t work.

Give them support and freedom to be creative and innovative.

Say, a BD manager, one of my best friends, told me he uses many creative ways to reach clients. He even learns and explores the Ads to see how they create engaging ads. So he uses the same techniques in his emails to pitch and convert clients.

It’s what he was proud of.

Listen to your employees.

Sometimes their issues are too little, but it means a lot to them.

For instance, if you don’t regulate payroll, it can create trouble for the employees who live paycheck to paycheck. In the last few days, employees might focus more on when they shall receive their salaries this month instead of being productive.

Secondly, once they get a chance, they will move on.

It’s just one case; listening to them and valuing their thoughts and opinions will more likely make employees loyal.

It also plays a significant role in handling difficult employees because, many times, it’s not them but you behind their disobedience.

Focus on the culture.

Everything influences all other things.

That’s why we always create values and obey them in the culture.

Your culture is an integral part of employees’ work. It’s how you are building their behaviors: positively and negatively.

It will not work if a manager does not follow the values but forces the employees to obey the rules. It will mislead employees and create distrust.

So it would be best to ensure that the culture has rules that work equally for all employees. The rules should be employee-centered.

Transparency makes employees more loyal.

As I mentioned, you can’t put all the eggs in one basket every time. What can you do in that case?

Transparency is the best tool to make employees loyal when you can’t fulfill all their demands.

You should make them believe you are loyal to them, but you have some restrictions.

For instance, if you want to improve the business model, but some employees resist the change, you realize uncertainty is one reason employees resist change; you can be transparent to them and tell them that the change will benefit all of you.

You will not only see less resistance, but you will also build trust to make them loyal.

Everything follows a process in business, and their demands will also be encouraged according to the process. Make them believe that they should trust the process because it’s the process that runs institutions. If you cross the borders, it will hurt the business growth.

If you are loyal to them, you can satisfy them logically. Even when you can’t fulfill all their demands, they will still be dedicated to your business.