If you have an invisible cloak and you wear it to walk around your office, what kind of conversation would you hear from your employees? Would you hear them talking passionately about their work? Or would you see them aimlessly scrolling through social media and at the same time complaining about their work?

Employees, no matter what are their positions; they are the key to determine whether a business can grow or not. If the staffs in your company tend to complain about their work rather than working as a team to work towards advancement, you know something needs to be changed in order to prevent increase of business problem or the increase of turnover rate.

To foster employee’s loyalty, you need to first understand how the human brain works.

Human are by nature social beings; we need to feel connected to people and have a sense of belonging. As much as the modern world imposes solitary life, the human brain says otherwise. When an individual feels connected with people, it helps the brain to secrete a hormone in the brain called oxytocin, a hormone that allows us to create bonding with people and encourage prosocial behaviour. If the work environment allows the employee to have their oxytocin boosted, they are likely to have a mindset that embraces cooperation, open-discussion and solution-driven as compared to rivalry, miscommunication and problem-focus. This is because the present of oxytocin reduces the stress hormones in the body and enables individual to willingly and voluntarily offers help and support to people around them or the project at hand.

If the work culture of your company cultivate helping, giving, sharing behaviour and cooperative attitude, wouldn’t it be an encouraging and uplifting workplace that would make employee wants to stay than to leave?

So how can you boost this beneficial hormone in your employee to boost loyalty and decrease turnover cost?

1. Recognize and Appreciation Their Hard Work

The human brain needs validation and appreciation from people around them in order to determine whether they should try harder or put more effort in what they are doing. If the work culture of a company is about blaming and finding fault with no clear guidance and support given; employee may be left feeling confused and lost. When a person assumes that he is not being appreciated and valued, the oxytocin level in the brain will decrease and affect the person’s sense of belonging in the company. This then lead to negative attitude and behaviour such as spreading rumours; making more mistakes; feel-like-giving-up attitude; not being helpful to other colleagues and so on. Only through giving recognition and appreciation can one cultivate creativity, motivation and loyalty in people.

2. Show interest not just in their work performance but personal advancement too

Every individual comes with different walk of life; and each of them is battling their own struggle. If a company could show some concern or give support for employees’ personal growth, such as allowing them to attend personal or spiritual development course; it allows employee to learn about themselves and gain knowledge and tools that would enable them to manage and handle past and present emotional burden and distress. Often, whether a person is facing a family issue, relationship issue or financial issue; their emotional baggage will carry over and affect their performance at work as the stress hormones is already too high to allow any creativity and ideas to function at work. However, if an employee is given the tools and knowledge to handle their stress at work or from family’s issue, they shall be able to keep the stress under control and focus on performing and advancing at work and in life.

3. Make it Fun

Work load can lead to burnout or distress but if the culture or the environment of the company is fun and enjoyable; it helps to keep employee’s stress level under control. Have a break room or some fun activities in the office for employee to keep their mind off their work for just a short 5-10 minutes would help boost their performance and creativity. This is because when there is something fun going on, the brain will start secreting not just oxytocin but also other beneficial hormones too such as serotonin and dopamine that boost motivation, good feeling and of course creativity and better work performance too.

If you understand how the human brain works, you can improve your company work culture and reduce turn over cost. Remember, the human brain functions like a small kid; it likes to have fun and feel appreciated and belonging in order to enable the stimulation of all the beneficial hormones in the brain and body; to help individuals boost their creativity and motivation for better work proficiency.

by Kate, the Psychologist