The 5Cs of Cultivating Staff Loyalty

Encourage your employees to think the grass is greener on this side.
26 April 2018

Many companies today are emulating the setups of Google and countless other tech companies – with bean bags, foosball tables and flexible, open-concept work spaces. It’s meant to create a casual and inviting atmosphere, but a cool office isn’t enough if your company isn’t providing real value to your employees’ personal and professional lives.

If ‘cool’ isn’t it, how can your company cultivate staff loyalty? We discuss another 5Cs that help with employee retention:

 

Cash

As famously sung by Jessie J, “It’s not about the money, money, money”. Well, it sometimes is about the money; but you cannot keep employees with just a bump in salary. It might sound puzzling at this point, but digging deeper will shed light on some important insights.

While offering a bigger pay package can entice an employee to stay onboard and continue serving his role, it will not motivate him to perform betteri. What this means is that lack of money can be a demotivator, but money is never a motivator. You’d be surprised at the amount of money employees can leave on the table when all other aspects of job fulfilment (intrinsic factors) are being met or even exceeded.

So what are these intrinsic factors?

 

Competitive Edge

While not all sports fans root for the single championship-winning team, you’ll observe that the most popular teams are usually among the best exponents in their sport.

In the same vein, the quality of work that your company puts out into the world does play a part in employee loyalty. This is not without logical reasoning — high-quality work is often the result of a well-run organisation. This typically translates from the organisation scoring well in areas of management, culture, processes and treatment of its employees — an ideal environment to work for any employee.

The quality of work also affects how the brand is represented in and perceived by the world, even to your own employees. They’d want to feel a sense of pride when telling others about where they work, especially when the other party recognises and has a favourable impression of the company — which they no doubt had a hand in building.

 

Career

Before we start on this point, let’s make the definitions clear: the difference between a job and a career is that a job is about performing tasks to earn a living, whereas a career is an important aspect of your life that you develop over the years with energy, passion and commitment.

An employer-employee relationship, as with any other relationships, should be mutually beneficial and value-creating. As a business owner, have you considered if your company is reciprocating the loyalty that you want your employees to have? Just like how loyal employees will help to drive your company towards its goals, your company should provide a platform for your employees to grow in their careers, and even their personal development.

Not only can you offer career progression in terms of promotion, you can allow employees to propose training or courses they’d like to attend to upskill themselves, even in areas that are not within their job scope but that they would like to explore. They’d also appreciate being able to implement self-started initiatives.

“Innovation is very important to us. That is why we create an environment for work and play to merge together and encourage creativity.”

– Patricia Liu, Chief Customer Officer at Razerii

For example, at gaming company Razer, CEO Min-Liang Tan challenged one of his staff to transform her idea – a kitty-ear variant of their gaming headphone Razer Krakens – into reality. Her innovation soon hit the local and global markets to much commercial success.

 

Community

Your employees work together in an open environment and spend a substantial portion of their time with one another. Office chatter may be seen as an unproductive use of time, but it helps to build a sense of community.

Humans are social creatures by nature. Interaction in the office is a good way of keeping morale up that doesn’t even require cost or effort to implement. You can help to build rapport by encouraging team lunches or occasionally throwing a celebratory party in the office.

When homegrown start-up Carousell was just established, the team had frequent discussions and meet-ups over meals. As they continued their rapid growth, the company transitioned to having Family-Friday meals together, ensuring that the various functions don’t work in silos.

Finally, while you may be their employer, it doesn’t mean you have to alienate yourself! Get involved and form personal bonds with your employees. Show genuine interest and find out what drives them, establishing empathy and mutual understanding just as you would as a friend.

 

Communication

How do you know what your staff is feeling or thinking if they don’t show it? That’s why constant communication is essential for your staff to voice out any concerns they might have to you.

Even a simple question like “How has the past week been for you?”, can present a channel into your employees’ inner thoughts and emotions, and provide you with insights on employee morale, as these can quickly become contagious in the workplace. Make sure you regularly check in on your employees’ situations and do your best to make it positive for them to keep their spirits up.

One important thing to note is that you must approach in a non-threatening and open-minded manner, so that employees feel safe enough to be honest and upfront when opening up to you.

When it comes down to the crux of the retention issue, the one thing that employees want is to feel valued; they want to know that their work is justly appreciated and rewarded, and the above are various manifestations of effectively showing that you value them and their contributions.

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