Lack of employee loyalty costs Saudi businesses SR35bn annually

In today’s competitive world, increasing productivity and efficiency is the mantra for success, be it government institutions or business houses.
That being said, recent studies on performance and efficiency have thrown up some disturbing trends indicating that businesses and other establishments have failed in their efforts to retain “employee loyalty.”
This single aspect is responsible for causing the business community in the United States losses estimated at $370 billion annually, with a massive 65 percent of employees lacking any loyalty toward their employer.
This is compared to the Saudi market, which accounts for 5 percent of US workforce, or 8 million out of 160 million employees. Results estimate that the Saudi business sector suffers losses of SR35 billion annually on account of the loyalty factor.
The losses are the result of poor performance, lack of employee loyalty within the work environment, low productivity and lack of interest in the work itself.
This has affected the quality of work, with many mistakes and errors being committed and with poor customer-service being provided, as well as missed opportunities and neglected work.
This is the first of its kind study in Saudi Arabia on employee loyalty. Experts hope that it highlights the importance of this issue and will garner sufficient attention from business leaders and HR officials.
An estimated 455 employees participated in the survey, with 44 percent of respondents from the government sector, 29 percent from major companies such as Aramco, SABIC, the communications sector, electricity and banks, while 27 percent of the respondents were from the private sector.
The contribution of employees from the government sector in the survey outnumbered that of managers, unlike respondents from the private sector.
In terms of work tenure, most respondents have work experience of less than 10 years in all sectors, particularly in major companies.
The majority of respondents who have work experience of more than 20 years were from the private sector, which means that the result of the survey reflects the ideology and attitude of the majority of the new generation, accounting for about 53 percent.
The questionnaire asked six questions representing common measurement in several international studies on employee loyalty. Four other questions were added to dig out differences in various work environments, occupational levels and years of experience.