Your company wouldn’t be very successful without loyal, productive employees. Many employees don’t realize the importance of fostering employee loyalty – it increases productivity, decreases turnover, and improves employee relations. Building employee loyalty doesn’t always come easy, but here are seven steps to set you on the right track:

1. Set a good example

If you want your employees to stick with you through thick and thin, make sure you’re someone they can respect and admire. Employers can earn respect by being genuine, giving credit where it’s due, and demonstrating a high level of skill and knowledge. If your employees feel that your management team doesn’t know what they’re doing, there’ll be a lack of confidence in leadership and they’ll struggle to see the ‘big picture’.

2. Be open and honest

Being open with your employees will make them feel like you’re all part of one big family. Sharing key data with employees could give them a strategic sense of where the company is headed and where it wants to go. By sharing appropriate information, employees will have a better idea of how they can influence your company’s success.

3. Create growth opportunities

If there’s room for growth in your company, employees will work even harder. Most people want to broaden their knowledge and advance in an organization, so it’s important that you provide regular opportunities for growth and possible changes in career path. Make sure employees are aware of training opportunities, and that there are no training gaps. Contrary to popular belief, if you help develop your employee’s skills, they’ll stay and try to improve further instead of trying to leave.

4. Deal with mistakes appropriately

Mistakes allow people to learn and grow, and how you deal with them says a lot about you as a manager. When things go wrong, it’s easy to immediately point fingers and play the blame game. However, that doesn’t solve anything. Encourage employees to open up to you when they’ve made mistakes so you can help prevent more and correct them constructively.

5. Demonstrate your own loyalty

If you want your employees to be loyal to you, you have to demonstrate your loyalty to them. The best way to demonstrate this is by making sure you have their back by being there for them when the going gets tough. In many cases, this happens when an unforeseen financial crisis hits their family. Knowing that you’ve taken the time to put a voluntary benefit in place for them, such as an easy to get, regulated bank loan for emergencies that doesn’t affect their credit score shows you really care. Or, by defending them from unfair criticism, intervening when there’s conflict between team members, and offering general guidance and support.

6. Avoid micromanagement

By constantly looking over your employees’ shoulders, you’re not allowing them to grow. Micromanaging employees will also make them feel like you don’t trust them to do their job. If there’s no trust between you and your staff, it could lead to low morale, a lack of productivity and a high turnover of staff.

7. Improve company culture

A company culture refers to the values and attitudes of employees in an organization. A good company culture will have engaged employees that act in-line with the company’s values. To improve company culture, make sure you create an environment where employees can be happy and productive.

By fostering employee loyalty, you’ll have a happy and productive staff, which in turn will reduce turnover and save your company a large amount of money. After all, your employees are the lifeblood of the company, and it’s important to ensure they’re satisfied.

TrueConnect is a voluntary employee benefits service that offers an easy, quick and effective way to help employees with their personal finances. By offering bank regulated employee loans, you’ll position yourself as a company who cares, which will greatly improve customer loyalty. Not only is the process streamlined, it has a number of benefits for both the employer and the employee, at no cost to the company Get in touch today to see how TrueConnect can help.