Nearly a quarter of company executives surveyed by the American Management Association told pollsters that they neither value nor focus on employee loyalty. Only one in five agreed that promoting employee loyalty is a major focus at their organization. And just a third of managers surveyed think there is a direct relationship between employee loyalty and corporate profits.
This perhaps startling news was distilled from a survey of more than 1,200 executives, managers and employees. The survey also revealed that 52 percent of company executives — and 61 percent of large company respondents — believe employee loyalty has dropped since the recession.
Only 11 percent said they felt their workers were more loyal today than five years ago. The rest said loyalty seemed about the same.
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The AMA characterized employee loyalty as having "declined sharply in recent years."
Whether the employers truly care about loyalty wasn't an output of the survey. When asked to list the ways they thought a lack of loyalty could affect the enterprise, respondents prioritized the drawbacks this way:
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Low morale: 84 percent
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High turnover: 80 percent
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Disengagement: 80 percent
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Growing distrust: 76 percent
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Lack of team spirit: 73 percent
When asked whether they actively promoted loyalty at work, only 20 percent said they did. Another large chunk — 56 percent — said they valued loyalty but didn't chase it.
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
