1. Old Older Oldest…!
The Chicken and Egg Story
It is a well published fact that Loyal or Engaged
Employees (or however may you define these set of
employees), tend to stay longer, but are
employees who stay longer, especially those
who stay with an organisation for more than a
decade more Loyal?
I am asking this question, because often research has
also pointed out that “Longer tenured employees”
have lower levels of loyalty / engagement levels.
The Walker Employee Loyalty
Report -2007
According to the 2007 "Walker Loyalty Report
of loyalty (U.S), data showed that Employee loyalty during
the first 10 years on the job generally increases as
employee tenure rises, but a large number are high risk.
After a decade on the job, however, loyalty diminishes.
Interestingly, the most-tenured categories (10-19 years
and 20 years or more) register the highest percentages of
trapped employees with 33 percent and 36 percent,
respectively
But is it the right way to interpret
the data?
Are we right in saying that “Employees
become less committed, as their tenure increases”? No,
the truth is that it’s the needs and expectations of this
segment (long tenured) employees that change and if the
organisation does not manage these employees
differently, their loyalty suffers.
Does our data in India show similar
trends?
Data from multiple studies conducted by CSMM in India
shows that Employee Commitment/ Loyalty is higher in
the first 10 years and lower post the 10yr tenure band. The
trend of Trapped* % appearing to be high in the most
tenured category is similar to what we found in the Walker
Loyalty report. Employees who have spent a decade in an
organisation will show a trend of higher% of trapped
employees. The accessible** % of employees shows a
decreasing trend, with increasing tenure.
Further investigation of the CSMM
Data (across multiple studies)
Show some interesting facts about
loyalty and tenure.
1)Overall Satisfaction: Overall, the
Longer tenured Employees (minimum 10yrs with
the organisation) are less happy on most aspects
than those who are in the less than 2yr tenure
band i.e the newer employees.
2)Pay and benefits: Most employee
surveys show this aspect as one
of the lowest rated elements,
though most often than not – it
is not a key driver of loyalty at a total organisation
level. Nevertheless, the unhappy % of employees
is more amongst the longer tenured employees.
Interestingly, for this set, it did emerge as one of
the drivers of Loyalty .
3)Drivers of Employee Loyalty: An interesting fact is
that as Employee Tenure
increases, the impact of “Sense of
Achievement” reduces. “Sense of
Achievement” is infact the most
important factor driving loyalty (especially for Gen
Y, who comprise majority of the new
employee category i.e less than
5yr). In addition to sense of
achievement, importance of
“Supervisory quality” is another
differentiating factor b/w short and long tenured
employees i.e it is a key driver of loyalty for the
newer employees, but not as important for longer
tenured category.
Therefore. While the above data does show briefly
how needs & expectations of employees change. One
needs to understand each point better and in detail.
For e.g on the “Pay /Benefits” aspect: Is it really that
the newer ones get the best deals and HR does not go
out and proactively correct the salary packages of
older employees or is it a perception issue? Or is it to
do with the older (Tenurewise) employees’
expectations, where they may want to be recognized
for their loyalty - monetarily? A deeper analysis of all
this data will yield more insightful information, which
organisations can use and implement to their benefit.

2. High Risk Trapped
Accessible Truly Loyal
Attitude
+
Behavior +–
Committed/ Engaged and will
continue to workCommitted/ Engaged
But will not work
Not Committed/ engaged,
But will continue to work
Not Committed/Engaged
Will not continue to work
High Risk Trapped
AccessibleAccessible Truly LoyalTruly Loyal
Attitude
+
Behavior +–
Committed/ Engaged and will
continue to workCommitted/ Engaged
But will not work
Not Committed/ engaged,
But will continue to work
Not Committed/Engaged
Will not continue to work
Term Explanation
Employees in the organization can now be segmented into 4 types based on their level of
“engagement”/ “commitment” and based on their intention to continue working in the organization.
(see figure alongside).
Truly Loyal employees are high on both emotional as well as behavioral loyalty.
**Accessible employees are high on commitment but may not continue working.
*Trapped on the other hand are low on emotional loyalty but will continue working
in the organization.
Finally, the High risk employees are those who are low on emotional as well as
behavioral loyalty. Such segmentation allows an organization to focus its efforts on
the relevant segments and create programs specific to each of the segments.
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