3/25/12


Is Employee Loyalty a Trait of the Past?
I have been a retained executive recruiter for over 26 years and have had the opportunity to interview thousands of possible candidates.  There is little doubt in my mind that employee loyalty is at an all time low.
Of late I have been seeing more and more people ready to jump ship and their employers don’t have a clue.  Secretly sending off resumes for immediate review and marking Emails containing resumes as CONFIDENTIAL and DO NOT FORWARD WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE written all over them.  A recent national survey claims that ONE in THREE professionals surveyed, hope to have a new position within the next 12 months.  This statistic if even 50% accurate,  is HUGE!
So why the downturn in loyalty you might ask?

A.      Stress levels are at an all time high

B.      Morale levels are at an all time low

C.      Insensitive and inept managers are in charge

D.      Inclusion of the team as a concept has been thrown by the wayside for penny pinching ideas

E.       Very poor communications

F.       Employees have learned how to give lip service to pacify supervisors/management

G.      Mission and Values that may or may not be stated and/or demonstrated by management

H.      Little utterance of the words, “Thank You”

I.        Lack of respect of one’s supervisor which happens to be an earned assessment

J.        No defined corporate business and social responsibility
What makes all this terrible for profitability, the morale of the company and the well being of the employee/employer health is that it doesn’t have to be this way.  So many times I’ve counseled executives who have an employee departing, I’ve asked, “did you try to save him/her?”  No is usually the answer, they’ve made up their mind so I just wished them well.  But don’t you have time and money invested in that employee I’d ask?  Well yes, but there is nothing I can do is typically the response.

The cost to replace one $9.00 per hour employee is somewhere between $5,000 and $7,500.  The cost to replace one $80,000 salaried employee is about $120,000.  THAT’S MONEY COMES RIGHT OFF THE BOTTOM LINE AND REDUCES YOUR PROFITS ACCORDINGLY.

The time to think about retention is the first day an employee starts.  You must have a plan in place.  Secondly, you must take control of the corporate destiny by treating people as people and realize that we are all individuals.  It matters not the number of employees in your organization, if you are not a good business citizen you will not be respected, rewarded and grow your organization.  If you need assistance, we CAN help!

Regards,
George F. Mancuso, CPC
President
Client Growth Consultants, Inc.