Is there any recent research about employee loyalty?

Chuck Martin

In this series, Bob Morris poses a key question and then responds to it with material from one or more of the business books he has reviewed for Amazon and Borders.

The most recent research of which I am aware has just been released by NFI Research, Chuck Martin’s firm. Here is an extended excerpt:

When it comes to staying with an organization, business leaders rank compensation (75%), confidence in leadership (73%) and autonomy/challenge (70%) as the top three factors keeping them where they are. At the bottom of the list were lack of other opportunities (6%), education (13%), and vacation time (17%).

Given everything that is happening in today’s economy, a majority (71%) of senior executives and managers would rather work for a small to medium sized organization. Forty percent say they would rather work for a medium sized organization while 31 percent say they would rather work for a small sized organization. Only 14 percent say they would rather work for a large organization.

A higher percentage of senior executives say autonomy/challenge is the thing that means the most to them when it comes to staying with an organization compared to managers, who say confidence in leadership is the thing that means the most.

Almost half of managers say they would rather work in a medium sized organization, while slightly fewer than half of senior executives would rather work in a small organization. Only 8 percent of senior executives say they would rather work in a large organization compared to 20 percent for managers.

Those in large organizations say that compensation is more meaningful compared to those in small and medium organizations, while a larger percentage of those in small companies say that their organizational culture is meaningful compared to those in large organizations.

No one in large organizations says lack of other opportunities is a meaningful reason to stay with an organization.

The majority of business leaders in large organizations say they would rather work for a medium sized organization given everything that is happening in today’s economy. Only 2 percent of those in small organizations say they would rather work for a large organization, and only 9 percent in large organizations say they would rather work for a small organization.

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Chuck Martin is the author or co-author of two immensely important books, Tough Management: The 7 Winning Ways to Make Tough Decisions, Deliver the Numbers, and Grow Business in Good Times and Bad (2005) and Smarts: Are We Hardwired for Success? with Peg Dawson and Richard Guare (2007).

To obtain more details about this research study, participate in future NFI surveys, and to subscribe to NFI Research, please use this link:

chuck@nfiresearch.com.

Comments, questions, requests, or suggestions? Please share them. They will be most welcome and I thank you for them. Best regards, Bob