9 Ways to Retain Employees and Improve Employee Loyalty

Employee loyalty is crucial to the ultimate success and growth of your business. Employee loyalty can significantly influence everything from productivity to team collaboration and innovation, employee retention, and a good deal more. It’s important to understand that companies must earn the loyalty of their team members. That may sound like a challenging task, but there are some straightforward solutions for improving employee loyalty. Those solutions can often be as simple as acknowledging employee achievements with meaningful custom awards.

Employees who have fun and enjoy their time at work are likely to be more engaged, more loyal, and even more productive. In addition to being great for your brand, retention, and company culture, making the workplace more fun also improves the quality of life for your team members, especially since they spend so much of their day at the office. Bumping up the fun quotient in the workplace can be as simple as celebrating employee hobbies or rewarding team members on a job well done with customized crystal or glass awards.

Here are 9 simple ideas for increasing employee retention in your office.

1.Enhance Employee Engagement

Members of any organization are significantly more likely to feel loyal to their team when they feel like they are a trusted team member. When a team member’s ideas are welcomed and their opinions are valued, they want to engage. Enhancing that type of engagement can involve providing employees with perks, flexibility, and other benefits. Perhaps most importantly, it means trusting each person with their responsibilities and demonstrating that their input is valued.

2. Recognize Team Members’ Achievements

You can also promote loyalty by publicly recognizing your team members’ achievements. That could include shout-outs on the company’s social media platforms and in-person thanks from members of the leadership team during a company-wide meeting. This kind of recognition can encompass any accomplishments, big or small. You might recognize big sales made, clients landed, or projects successfully completed. However, you can also acknowledge a team member’s role as a mentor, their ability to encourage teamwork, or their desire to boost morale. After all, these factors are critical to your business’ success and deserve to be recognized.

3. Acknowledge Employee Milestones

There are few more quantifiable indicators of employee loyalty than the length of time an individual has been a part of the team. Employee work anniversaries or milestones are a practical tribute to loyalty that deserve the same recognition as any other achievement. Celebrate their years of service by publicly acknowledging their achievement and rewarding it as a significant milestone.

4. Provide Your Team with Meaningful Awards

The nature of the awards you give to commemorate employee achievements makes a difference. Recognizing your team members’ contributions is always likely to be appreciated, but it will be even more meaningful if you award them with something personal. One team member might enjoy a thank you card and a gift certificate to a local coffee shop, while another team member might prefer a meaningful customized award they can keep at their desk. Getting your employees high-quality custom glass, crystal, or acrylic awards demonstrates that you put time, thought, and effort into celebrating their achievements and talents. Meaningful, heartfelt awards tell your team members that they are valued and their contributions truly matter.

5. Schedule Check-Ins That Provide Constructive Feedback

Promoting loyalty by making all your team members feel engaged, recognized, and valued requires effective communication with the team. It means being aware of any challenges or issues they’re facing and any areas for improvement that should be addressed. Schedule regular check-ins to foster that kind of productive communication and interaction. To be effective, communication must go both ways. Those check-ins are an invaluable opportunity to provide team members encouragement and honest, constructive feedback. That way, in addition to commending them for a job well done, you can also show your team members that you are invested in their continued success by brainstorming areas for improvement with them.

6. Encourage Hobbies and Bring Them In

Employee hobbies are widely considered an after-hours pursuit, but they don’t have to be. Encouraging your team members to bring their hobbies into the workplace and share them with others is a quick, effective way to boost morale and remind everyone on the team that they’re valued as individuals as well as employees. For instance, if you have an employee who enjoys growing exotic plants, allow them to bring in their terrarium or small grow area to share their knowledge with other team members who are curious. Maybe you have team members who create art or build models? Set aside some space for them to work on their hobbies when they need a quick break.

7. Celebrate Team Members’ Achievements and Milestones

Publicly celebrating the achievements and milestones of your team members serves a dual purpose. Along with nurturing a fun work environment, it reminds employees that their contributions are recognized and appreciated. Accomplishments that should be celebrated include specific achievements like making sales, meeting big deadlines, or improving processes. No less important are the opportunities to recognize employees who are always there to help their teammates, those who never miss a day, and those who can always be trusted to brighten everyone’s day with a smile. Remember to celebrate milestones and work anniversaries as well—it’s a celebration of loyalty and commitment.

8. Host a Workplace Award Ceremony with Custom Awards

A fun way to recognize everything your team does for your organization is by including them in a formal award ceremony, perhaps at a fine-dining restaurant or gourmet-catered conference space. It’s an event your team is likely to look forward to, enjoy, and appreciate. A formal award ceremony should always involve awarding team members with beautiful, high-quality awards. Presenting those who have made significant achievements with stunning crystal award personalized for them is the sort of meaningful gesture they are likely to cherish.

9. Make Time for an Informal Workplace Award Celebration, Too

You can complement the formal workplace award ceremony with an informal one where team members can create their own awards for teammates. It’s a recipe for a creative, collaborative good time. These award categories should be created specifically for each member by their fellow team members. You can base them on inside jokes, an individual’s specific habits, or any other fun office references. Your team might refer to funny stories, shared memories, or jokes about each other’s idiosyncrasies—the coworker who thrives on caffeine, the early bird, the office’s social butterfly, and so on. Hold the ceremony at the team’s favorite local bar, a bowling alley, or another fun, informal location.