While the Great Resignation is old news, employee retention is still suffering from the life disruptions and raised expectations of recent years. Retaining top talent has been, and remains to be, a top priority for organizations (45%) and HR teams (62%)—however, the average turnover rate is still high at 41%.
In this post, we want to introduce a new way of increasing retention by building feelings of goodwill and engagement in your workforce: an employee loyalty program.
These programs are designed to engage employees in specific ways that build their feelings of loyalty toward your business, which, in turn, leads to other transformative benefits for your organization and culture.
Understanding Employee Loyalty: Why It Matters
The definition of loyal is “giving or showing firm and constant support or allegiance.” It means that employees are unwavering in their efforts to help the organization succeed. It means employees do all that they can to help other employees find success. It means employees proactively improve processes and exceed expectations.
And it means that employees stick around through good times and bad, and they’re not easily convinced to take other job opportunities.
Basically, loyal employees are every business leader’s dream come true.
What Are the Benefits of Loyal Employees?
Loyal employees are going to be happier at work, which can lead to 13% greater productivity and 4X longer tenure. They’ll proactively take on more work because they’re dedicated to the success of the company. They’ll go the extra mile to ensure the best results of any project they’re involved in.
In other words, they’ll be more engaged, productive, and satisfied, all of which have a huge impact on overall business performance.
A Comprehensive Overview of Employee Loyalty Programs
An employee loyalty program, broadly speaking, includes any solutions or initiatives that aim to build employee loyalty and strengthen their commitment to the organization. Typically, these programs recognize and reward employees for their various efforts.
Think of them like a customer loyalty program. To help keep customers loyal, companies will often offer them discounts, specific deals, early access to new items, or even special member events to celebrate them.
Employee loyalty programs are similar; employees give their time and effort to the organization, which in turn recognizes them with PTO, cash, gratitude, professional development, etc. This, in turn, makes the employee feel like they’re valued and supported, which increases loyalty.
These programs are designed to build a cycle of support and effort between employee and employer. Now let’s dive into the specifics of creating one.
Employee Reward Programs vs Loyalty Programs: What’s the Difference?
Employee reward programs are another similar method of building culture, engagement, and trust for your workforce. However, reward programs typically have two major differences when compared to loyalty programs:
- Reward programs typically focus on short-term incentives and rewards for specific behaviors.
- Reward programs are more narrow in focus.
Employee loyalty programs, on the other hand, focus on building long-term commitment to the organization through various far-reaching recognition and reward programs.
How to Create an Employee Loyalty Program
To understand how to make an impactful employee loyalty program, you have to understand what influences employee loyalty. While every employee is different, these are some of the most common factors:
- Company culture. Does your culture support employee individuality, build trust, and allow employees to have fun?
- Work-life balance. Does the company support employees’ personal lives and help them live the best lives they can?
- Engaging work. Is their specific work fulfilling? Do they know how their work contributes to the success of their team and the company?
- Career development. Do employees have clear paths for growth and development? Can they see themselves at the company in five years? Ten?
- Compensation and benefits. Are employees fairly compensated for the work they do? Are benefits competitive enough to keep them happy?
- Diversity and inclusion. Is the company a place that accepts and supports everyone? Do all employees feel equally seen and cared for?
- Recognition and rewards. Are employee efforts noticed and rewarded? Do employees feel like when they work hard, they know that someone will notice and care?
If these are the factors that influence employee loyalty, they’re the factors that need to be the foundation of any employee loyalty program.
Now let’s look at the steps to take when planning your loyalty programs:
1. Talk to Employees
The best way to plan and implement an employee loyalty program is to talk to your employees and learn more about what they want and need. Send out a survey and have managers talk to employees in one-on-ones to get as much data as you can. Exit interviews are another great way to learn where you can improve.
2. Build Your Program
Once you know where to focus your employee loyalty program, it’s time to build it! For example, do employees wish they had more work-life balance and flexibility? Consider a loyalty program built around employee wellness, offering PTO, therapy stipends, or gym membership reimbursements to employees who perform at a certain level.
It’s all about tailoring your programs to fit what your people want and need. Financial rewards such as performance bonuses or recognition points are great, and so are non-monetary rewards such as handwritten cards or professional development opportunities.
3. Share Your Program and Adjust as Necessary
Communicate your program to ensure that employees are aware of it. Spread the word and make sure managers and other leaders know about it and act as examples for their employees. Make sure employees know how to participate, especially if they need to login to a platform or something similar.
Once you have some data to go on, adjust your loyalty program as necessary. Are employees happier than they were? Are engagement survey responses higher than before? Continue to customize your programs to maximize their effectiveness.
Build Employee Loyalty
Loyal employees perform better and stick around longer. Employee loyalty programs are a great way to boost this in a measurable way. Focus on the factors that influence loyalty, and make sure every employee can participate. And if you need help building a recognition and reward program customized to your business, Awardco can help.
An avid lover of fantasy books, a proud Hufflepuff, and a strong proponent of escapism, Jeff has a love of good storytelling. He relies on that for both his professional work and his writing hobby (don’t ask about the 10+ novel ideas collecting virtual dust on his computer).
