HRHeadStart #80: Is Loyalty an Outdated Concept; Productivity Hacks

The Talent Agenda

Loyalty is considered a virtue in most life situations like family, friends and sports teams. However, employee loyalty can be complex. It is often more transactional and less reciprocal. An employee could feel connected to the mission of a company and yet, the company may feel nothing about the employee.

One-way loyalty can also be costly for employees. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, which tracks wage growth in America, in April, job switchers were being paid 7.6% more than a year earlier; job stickers were being paid only 5.6% more. Another study demonstrated that if an employee was described as loyal, then bosses were happy to dump more work on them. The reverse also applied: employees who did more work for no reward were more likely to be described by managers as loyal.

Employee loyalty can have different facets. Companies and leaders expect organizational loyalty, but may miss the point that employees are also loyal to their own careers. And loyalty to one’s own career can supersede organizational loyalty in the long-term. It is unrealistic to expect that an employee would be attached to the purpose of the organization, if the organization doesn’t do much beyond lip service for their career.

The true enabler of loyalty is value exchange i.e. leaders enabling the exchange of value between the organization and the employees. This entails providing employees with the right ROI (in terms of compensation, benefits, work culture, development, growth etc.) on the value they create for the organization.

In reality, employees are not a company’s biggest asset. They are investors of their talent, skills and time. And like financial investors, they would move their investments when returns are sub-optimal.

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Working Better

I stumbled upon this brilliant post by Sam Altman (CEO, OpenAI). He wrote it about 5 years ago, much before he shot to global fame. It is full of insights about personal productivity, prioritization, health & well-being and other myriad topics.

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Tiny Thought

“Productivity in the wrong direction isn’t worth anything at all.  Think more about what to work on.” ~ Sam Altman