I have been blogging for some time that eventually the dam will burst and employees will start moving around. I think the dam is starting to leak. We recently conducted a survey of Indiana business leaders and asked if they were going to increase hiring in the next year. The percent of those indicating they were going to increase hiring went up 7 percentage points compared to 2011 (to read more about this study go to www.indianabusinesscouncil.com) . I recently saw a study by Young Presidents Organization (YPO). This is organization of, as you can guess, presidents of organizations that are below a certain age. This study asked these presidents about various aspects of their business; sales, fixed investments, and employee count. In this study, more than 30% said they planned to increase hiring by at least 10% over the next year, with more than 10% saying they will increase hiring by 20% or more. So who do you think they are going to hire? Sure some of the unemployed will get snatched up but the majority of these hires will be companies pilfering the top talent from other companies, your top talent.
As business leaders you have a couple of choices here. You can turn away and ignore the dam and explain it away. You can try to put your finger in a few of the holes in hopes that it will get you by. Or you can put up some bricks and mortar to reinforce the dam, the bricks and mortar is called employee loyalty. By measuring what employees are looking for in their job and from their company, you can take the appropriate action that will have an impact on employee loyalty and the organization as a whole. We know for a fact that loyal employees are less likely to leave an organization and more likely to resist offers. We also know these employees are more likely to speak highly of the company, help out co-workers with heavy workloads, support the strategy of the organization, and go above and beyond in their job. The graph below is from a national employee loyalty study from several years ago but it clearly illustrates that loyal employees are more likely to exhibit positive behaviors.
