"If You Want Loyalty Get a Dog. I Come to Work for the Pay"

A survey of 2, 300 employees nationwide, cosponsored by Hudson Institute and Walker Information, concludes that "having good ethics within an organization is good business. " The study concluded that more than half of those who believe their workplaces are highly ethical are also "truly loyal " to their employers.

So if your leaders demonstrate the right stuff, then so will you. If they are ethical, honest then a workplace culture of trust is cultivated. To strengthen employee loyalty and reduce turnover, the study suggests, companies must demonstrate ethics from the top of the organization through leaders ’ adherence to core values. In addition, fairness and honesty should be evident in the company ’s policies and personnel practices.

Some say that the nature of the bargain changed. In the past job security was offered, and loyalty was the pay back. If you take away the job security and there goes the loyalty.

I ponder whether or not all the talk about whistle-blower legislation is at contrast with loyalty. Rat out your employer. We used to talk about "turning a Nelsonian Blind eye." There are alway shades of grey when you are talking about ethical actions (i.e. is it really that wrong to use the company fax for an invitation to a retirement party??). Increasingly workplaces are becoming one of one upmanship (I win and you lose). In such environments don't be surprised when the loyalty rapidly disappears as well. Employers and employees used to be able to call upon the "loyalty bank." In today's workplace it seems as the bank account is in overdraft. It is becoming a truism that when asked, "why do good people leave?". The response is "because they can."

In The Corrections, novelist Jonathan Franzen brilliantly depicts how two generations of one family measure the same work environment. While father Alfred, a closet inventor, doggedly climbs the career ladder over several decades to provide his family middle-class advantages, daughter Denise views the entry level job he snags for her with a gimlet eye. Raised in a suburban ranch house, money doesn't move her but novelty does.

That's not to say that money isn't a powerful motivator to your escapees, but it's not the only or even the main one for this age group. Surveys by consulting groups and the insurance industry show that younger employees see the opportunity for training, mentoring and paid leaves to pursue advanced degrees (not to mention adventure holidays) as huge incentives. Not only is this swath of employees more likely to stay if they're stimulated, but other non-financial benefits like involving employees in sharing information and being flexible about job design and self-directed work groups make it more likely that they will create first-to-market innovations, according to a report on innovation from Statistics Canada. They may not invent a "direct quasi-real-time digital chemical interface," as The Corrections' Alfred Lambert does secretly in his basement, but they may just stay long enough to invent something new.