Employee Loyalty Increasing Due to Slowing U.S. Economy

Signs of a slowing economy are forcing a majority of working Americans to stay with their current employers and work harder in order to remain loyal to them.

The number of Americans staying in their current positions has considerably risen over the last year or so. They are also putting more effort and time into their work.

The latest report in Gartner’s Talent Monitor from the second quarter of 2019 suggests that employee loyalty is up by 53%, which is a 10% increase over the first quarter of the year. This is the very first time most of the U.S. workforce has decided to stay with their current employers.

The chief of research for Gartner HR, Brian Kropp, views this increase as an overall shift from employees leaving a job every few years for better opportunities, to staying where they are simply because the job market doesn’t have as many available job opportunities as it once had, which would explain why people aren’t looking for another job as often. In fact, this particular figure has dropped to 12.5% from 25% from the first quarter, which is significantly below the 20% global average.

It’s no surprise that employees are working much harder, as a majority of Americans (21%) are going above and beyond in their positions, according to the report. This is also greater than the 17% global average and the first time this number has risen above 20% in over a year.

Workers want to hang onto their jobs, which is the reason they’re putting more effort and time into their current positions. Kropp calls on HR leaders to invest more in internal employee training programs so employers will not only maintain employee loyalty amongst their staff but give them more of a purpose at work.

Feeble Talent-Attraction Efforts

There are still a number of positions that need to be filled in many different sectors. Another report from Garner says that the 2019 initial Talent IQ index indicates that companies have much more work to do in order to improve their acquisition of talented workers.

The talent-attraction index ranks the efforts of the top 200 companies in most need of tech workers by measuring them across over 500 different indicators alongside three components: candidate experience, job-offer attractiveness, and employment branding. These measurements ranked the companies into four different groups: Feeble (19 businesses), Challenged (26 businesses), Average (58 businesses), Gifted (86 businesses), and Genius (four companies were given this distinction including Stryker Corp., American Express, Northrop Grumman, and Microsoft).

Gartner’s advice to companies for avoiding the Feeble or Challenged categories is included in the following three best-practices:

• Candidate Experience: Most tech candidates were focused on inclusion and diversity when they evaluated potential organizations and positions, but only a small number of businesses recognize this. Only 30% of business leaders have a diversity and inclusion statement according to research.
• Job-Offer Attractiveness: Job listings should be clear about the kinds of employees companies want through the consideration of 5 categories of employee value proportion: work, people, organization, opportunity, and rewards.
• Employment Branding: Your company’s posts on social media should focus solely on career-related topics that matter to potential candidates. This way you’ll be able to engage with them better. Some topics to consider include professional development, corporate culture, and diversity.