Loyalty

Due to the natural of my role, I get to involve with many recruitment activities. Through these activities, I recognized that “LOYALTY” is one of the key considerations during talent selection, which in fact I totally disagree.

If the candidate were so loyal to his current company, then why would he seek to join another organization?

Interviewers would often show great interest to enquire the reasons for those short period experiences, but none would take those reasons. Interviewer won’t accept someone who speaks the downfall of another company, because they afraid the person will do the same in the future. Interviewer won’t accept any make up story, because they knew those were stories. These people will simply be labeled as low loyalty people, which is totally bias.

An internal customer should be recognized equally as an external customer in defining “LOYALTY”. An external customer who often visits a specific shop does not represent any form of loyalty to the shop at all. There could be many reasons behind such guest’s visit, such as price, location, product and even unforeseen force.

The “LOYALTY” would only be form when there is an engagement. On the other hand, engagement would often be form when there is a challenge.

A personal example would be well enough to explain the above statement.

Last year, I have a chance to visited Bali for a short vacation. I made a choice of hotel to stay base on the location and price. The hotel I stayed was nice and the staff was friendly, and I knew I might probably choose the same hotel again for my next visit, if the price is right.

At the last day of my vacation, I encountered a huge challenge. While I conducted currency exchange with one of the local store, I was cheated and lost quite a big amount of money. The staff in hotel over heard my conversation with friends regard to such incident, and supportively offered assistant. My money was back with the help of hotel.

After this incident, my loyalty to this hotel was formed. I will definitely choose to stay with this hotel for my next visit to Bali. Furthermore, I will preferably choose to stay with such hotel brand whenever I travel. Of course, I have also recommended the brand to others.

The above story shows how an engaging experience assist in forming loyalty. The same would apply to the working environment. Those with short period service may encounter challenges, and their previous employers just never take the effort to help or even just show some care. Therefore, the person decided to leave.

There is nothing wrong for a person to leave an establishment if there is no mutual goal in between.

Through my experience, I have also encountered people who spend years in an organization, but express no loyalty at all. These people complain about their company in public everyday, and never recommended anyone to join. The only reason that keeps them there was money, or they just could not find another opportunity anymore.

I would strongly recommend those who involve in recruitment activities to focus only on talents and personality. The years of service should only be a small factor while hiring. The leaders through engagement and care will develop loyalty of the employee.