Discovering new techniques for how organizations can earn their employees’ loyalty

PurposeThis research aims to identify the antecedents to organizations earning employee loyalty (EEL) and develops a measure of how an organization signals loyalty to its employees, individually and collectively, in ways that its employees see as a fair, desirable and appropriate return for their contributions. This scale significantly improves upon existing conceptual loyalty measures to identify individual employees’ perceptions of specific antecedent organizational actions and policies that will generate and sustain the employee’s loyalty.Design/methodology/approachThis study used an exploratory, sequential mixed-methods design across three phases. Study I used qualitative methods to identify employee expectations of organizational actions, policies and leader communications, generating an initial pool of scale items. Study II tested the factor structure, reliability and nomological validity of the EEL scale through exploratory factor analysis. Study III validated the final scale using confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical regression, comparing its predictive value against established constructs such as job satisfaction and perceived organizational support (POS).FindingsTraditional measures such as POS (Eisenberger et al., 1986) and job satisfaction scales no longer fully capture today’s evolving employer–employee relationships including newer employee expectations such as differential accommodations. These tools provide limited insight into specific actions organizations can take to foster loyalty. In contrast, the EEL scale offers a holistic assessment by measuring employee perceptions across thematic categories – such as growth, accommodations and shared values – directly linked to loyalty, providing organizations with clearer guidance for improvement. Final testing demonstrated the EEL scale is significantly better than existing traditional predictors of loyalty such as job satisfaction and POS at predicting.Originality/valueThis research offers and tests prescriptive actions organizations can take to proactively earn employee loyalty and reduce attrition. Unlike traditional scales, which measure loyalty post hoc, this study provides a forward-looking framework to help organizations anticipate and address employee needs before disengagement occurs.