How to Create Loyal Teams

Loyal employees are your most engaged employees. Having engaged employees reduces turnover which saves you money in recruiting, hiring and training. Engaged employees are more productive, and increase your company’s profits. Engaged employees are more creative, helping your business grow and move above your competition. Growth and profits are the goal, of course, but providing a positive work environment, populated with happy employees, also makes work life sweeter for everyone! It’s a wonderful bonus for everyone in the company. An investment in creating loyal employees creates strong, powerful teams, that drive top performance, on a consistent, sustainable basis.

Nurture a Team Effort

When creating loyal employees, it is vital to develop and nurture a team atmosphere. Providing this team atmosphere gives people a sense of belonging and inclusion. When you create a well-functioning team, people feel respected. Knowing that their input and opinions are valued is one of the most important reasons why someone will stay at a job. While watching any highly functioning team, either in the workplace or in sports, everyone has a job to do, and they depend on each other to do their respective roles. Employees understand how they contribute to the overall success of the team, and because they feel they are part of something bigger than just themselves, people will put in that extra discretionary effort to ensure they don’t let their teammates down. People will go above and beyond because they want their teammates to do the same for them. Everybody rows the boat in the same direction, and goals are strived for and achieved together.

Empower Your Teams

Employees need to feel empowered to make decisions necessary for the successful completion of their tasks. Nothing kills morale more than having to ask permission for every decision, and it’s worse when every decision is second-guessed. Decisions making should be delegated to the lowest level possible. Empowering employees will foster a sense of pride in their work, it gives them a sense of ownership. Creating a sense of ownership enables an employee to go the extra mile to make sure the job is done right. There will be more satisfaction in a job well done, and they’ll do it because it’s for themselves, their teammates, and the company. The motivation comes from within, and not from a sense of obedience or subservience. When an employee has no sense of ownership in the team success, they’ll do exactly what is required. If their efforts fail, or if they see a better way, they are less likely to make valid suggestions for improvement.

Lead Effectively Towards Growth

Probably most importantly, business leaders need to lead their teams. For a group to be operating at maximum efficiency, there has to be a direction provided by the leader. Teams are most effective when the leader encourages growth among its team members. People should be encouraged to grow in their current job. This might mean they are given training to master a new skill, or given stretch assignments. Leaders need to keep their team members pushing themselves and moving forward in new directions. Challenge comfort zones and the status quo. When people become comfortable, they get complacent, and growth slows or stops. While encouraging growth, it is essential to understand that you have to tolerate failure. Support new and innovative ways to achieve a goal. When team members challenge new ideas or try something new, they are likely to fail at some stage. Help your team recognize the failure and how they can learn from it. Showing leadership helps people find direction and meaning in their work and will help create loyalty for your company.

This Week’s Challenge

From a business standpoint, it’s always more cost effective to keep a loyal employee than it is to gain a new one. Spend this week focusing on creating loyal employees. Focus on developing a team, empowering the team members and leading them to success and watch your employee loyalty increase as well as your bottom line! Treat everyone in your organization to this great win-win-win!

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Quote of the Week

“Employee loyalty begins with employer loyalty. Your employees should know that if they do the job they were hired to do with a reasonable amount of competence and efficiency, you will support them.”
Harvey MacKay