Smaller enterprises that can maintain their workforces and whose leaders are closer, in economic terms, to their employees will be able to maintain loyalty, assuming that they are able to run their businesses in a way which fulfills the neurogenetic needs of their workers. But they themselves are under great competitive pressure, and although they are collectively the largest sources of employment in the developed world, this probably cannot last. Overall, the trends visible in society are such that employee loyalty, like employee engagement, may well be a thing of the past. The irony is that at the same time technology is showing us that we do not need the workers we have, the science of behavioral neurogenetics is showing us how to run our companies and our firms in such a way as to engender the maximum level of loyalty in our workforces.

The first thing to realize about employee loyalty is that the loyalty is probably not to the employer, but rather to those who are in the employees’ immediate work circle—colleagues, supervisors, reports, immediate managers or even clients and customers (Bidwell and Fernandez-Mateo, 2010). Only really exceptional businesses get genuine loyalty to the organization itself.

The other thing to note is that, throughout the world, loyalty to companies or firms is rapidly declining. MetLife’s 10th annual survey of employee benefits, trends and attitudes released in March puts employee loyalty at a seven-year low. One in three employees, the survey says, plans to leave his or her job by the end of the year. According to a 2011 Careerbuilder.com report, 76% of full-time workers, while not actively looking for a new job, would leave their current workplace if the right opportunity came along. Other studies show that each year, the average company loses anywhere from 20% to 50% of its employee base (Knowledge@Wharton, 2012).

Effective Executive Magazine, What Is Employee Loyalty, How to Gain, Retain and Lose.