3 Steps To Creating Employee Loyalty
By Sean McDonald, Your Full Potential
Executives are aware that creating loyalty among an organization’s employees can be challenging. Credit unions are no different. It is critical that credit union executives take steps to ensure that our industry will employ the brightest, most passionate, and most motivated professionals both now and in the future. Here are 3 suggestions on how this can be accomplished:
Make An Investment – of course, you have to pay salaries and you can call that an investment. However, to attract the best and the brightest, you have to take the concept of investment even further. Show your employees that you care about their professional development by investing in training. Send them to a conference once a year or allow them to take online webinars or courses. If you are constantly saying “no” to their requests to acquire more knowledge, they will not feel as if you are loyal to them. So why should they be loyal to you? If your best employees have earned the right to get more because they do more than their peers, it would be wise to reward them.
Empower Your Employees to Make Decisions – This is nothing new yet there is still way too much micro-managing going on in credit unions. Give your employees a chance to display their talent for strategic decision-making by letting up on the reigns a bit. Tellers shouldn’t have to go to a VP to waive a $5 fee. Will people make mistakes? Yes. Correct the mistakes and move on. You can’t run an organization effectively if you are constantly anxious about people screwing up occasionally. It happens.
Make Sure Your Managers Are Leaders – Managers run reports and approve vacation time. Your employees are not inspired by people who simply manage. Great leadership is the source of inspiration. The operational aspects of a manager’s job are important; however, managers also have to be able to motivate their employees. If your managers stink, your employees will leave. Management and leadership are two different things. Your managers have to do both.
All the best for a fantastic 2013!
