How to Celebrate Employee Loyalty

Editor's Note: Take a look at our featured best practice, 5 Dimensions of Employee Engagement (24-slide PowerPoint presentation). Businesses typically focus on customers. However, with rapid changes and intense competition they have come to realize that employees make or break an enterprise, create brand impression, and represent the organization's culture & values. Exceptional service has been realized as a key source [read more]

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Loyalty is a rare feature in today’s workplace. Because most organizations do not incentivize workers to stick around, most employees will start looking for new employment after just a couple years in a role. Thus, it is even more important in this day and age to celebrate employees who remain loyal. Here are a few ways to make loyal employees feel special and to encourage other workers to develop loyalty of their own.

Go Big for Employee Anniversaries

Employee anniversaries are some of the most important milestones workers experience — and they occur every year. Around the anniversary of their first day at work, employees tend to reflect on their experiences in their current role. They will contemplate their satisfaction with their responsibilities, pay and treatment, and they might consider the strength of the relationships they have formed in the workplace. If workers find any aspect of their employment wanting, they will begin the process of looking for a new job.

Thus, it is imperative that organizations go above and beyond to improve employee satisfaction during this time. Leaders can use a tool like an employee recognition platform from Workhuman to track employee anniversaries and send notifications when an anniversary is approaching. Research shows that a worker’s first anniversary is incredibly important in determining whether the employee will remain with the organization for long or leave in the coming months. However, leaders should not neglect more established workers who have more years of experience with the company.

At smaller and medium-sized businesses, employee anniversaries should be celebrated by the entire organization. The employee’s favorite treats should be on offer, and work should be put on pause to honor the employee’s contributions during the past year. At larger corporations, it might be more feasible for employees to celebrate their anniversaries with their teams, with an offsite lunch or recreation enjoyed by the honoree.

Though it might be tempting to celebrate employee anniversaries on a monthly basis, grouping employees together in this way does little to inspire loyalty and engagement. Leaders need to respect their workers as individuals, which means marking anniversaries as special and unique events.

Offer Annual Rewards for Most Loyal Workers

Most organizations have formal recognition programs which honor certain employees for certain contributions. For example, a worker might win an award for providing the highest quality of customer service at the company, and another worker might be awarded “Most Improved” for demonstrating development in an important workplace skill. In many cases, these awards are handed out during a ceremony that provides workers a space and time wholly dedicated to recognition and praise.

During awards ceremonies, it is important to call attention to the most loyal workers within the organization with special awards honoring their long service records. Organizations can mention newer employees who have completed one year of work, but they should pay a greater amount of respect to employees who have remained with the company for many years. Some examples of awards to honor the tenured employees include:

• Running the Marathon
• Forever With Us
• The Iron Pillar
• The Collared Diamond
• Outstanding Service Record
• Unmatched Dedication
• The Ultraman Employee
• Salute to Loyalty
• Beyond Grateful

Alongside the recognition, an organization’s most loyal employees should earn prizes during the awards ceremony. They might be honored with extra PTO to enjoy a longer vacation before returning to work, or they might gain traditional tokens of long, exceptional service like a gold watch or a monogrammed briefcase. These gifts will help workers remember that their company values them and will help them recommit to their employer year after year.

Increase Valuable Perks and Incentives

What employees want, more than fun work lunches or an office ping-pong table, is better compensation. The number-one reason employees cited for quitting their jobs during the Great Resignation is that their pay was too low for the work they put in. The fact is that most workers recognize the value of their knowledge and skills, and to cultivate loyalty, organizations need to respect that value and compensate workers accordingly.

Employee loyalty should be rewarded with consistent pay increases, which employees can expect without demanding raises from their managers. Additionally, loyalty should provide employees with more workplace perks, like access to career development opportunities that train them for advances through the corporate structure. Other inexpensive but impactful incentives include gym memberships, additional PTO and stock options, all of which improve a worker’s lifestyle in meaningful ways.

Loyalty is only rare in the modern workplace because businesses have not prioritized it as a feature of the workforce. Now that workers have more options in their employment, organizations need to find ways of building loyalty in their staffs, which involves celebrating employees who remain loyal.

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