I pledge allegiance to you - about employee loyalty

Loyalty is a word that everyone interprets differently. The dictionary of the Polish language, in its basic definition, talks about "an honest and reliable person in relations with other people." Let's consider how to define loyalty in an employer-employee relationship.

The establishment of this relationship arises when the employment relationship is established. At this point, the employer has every right to expect full loyalty from the employee, which in this case means his reliability and correct attitude to the assigned duties.

Litmus paper

By what criteria does an employer have the opportunity to check whether a newly hired employee is loyal? (We assume that the current employees are loyal.) If we give a person our values, the "code" of the company, so to speak, then the first criterion is whether the employee abides by them in every situation, whether he identifies with them. Of course, these can't be one-off behaviors, for show, but a long-term approach.

Treating a company like a machine, we can compare its employees to its parts. Each is insanely important and has a function to keep the whole thing running smoothly. An engine needs well-ground piston cylinders, but also without the wire that conducts the power harness to the spark plug, ignition will not happen. Every worker is just such a component. However, people are not machines and often take an emotional approach to their duties. If a person ties his future to the company, then we have a high probability that he will be a loyal person.

Cooperation

How to achieve loyalty? Shout it out? Enforce with the threat of penalties? Definitely not! Loyalty is a double-edged sword and the employer must do his part to build trust in the eyes of the employee. Loyalty is something that, to be lasting and true, should not come from fear. An intimidated person will simply dislike his superior. One of the rules of social influence comes to mind here - the rule of likability, which I wrote about earlier in this post.

People hold on to employment for various reasons, but the most common is economic. If a person intimidated by his boss sees an opportunity to earn money in another job and environment, then he will most simply leave. We can expect the same behavior when a company goes through a crisis. The relationship of loyalty, and thus trust, should be built equally, both by the employee and the employer.

Duty of loyalty

According to - Art. 100. §2. pt. 4. P.C. states that the employee has a duty to "take care of the good of the workplace, protect its property and keep secret the information, the disclosure of which could expose the employer to harm." Information is undoubtedly power, especially in today's world, which is so dizzying. "Leakage" of sensitive information, enabled by a disloyal employee, can simply result in disaster. In this light, loyalty is even crucial by a huge K.

As we can see, true loyalty is only achievable if we put in the work and effort to build it consciously and from both sides: employer and employee.