Question about job interviewsFollow

Networking is the key. I know people, and they know I'm a hard worker and am dependable. I haven't really had to worry about an interview in about 7 years. During that time I've had jobs with 3 different companies, and got said jobs because I blew the right people.

Surveys show that employees are less committed to staying with one company. They also indicate that employees believe their companies are less loyal to them, as well.

And employers who take the time to understand what that different loyalty means, and how to create it, will have a distinct advantage in attracting and keeping talent.Employee loyalty began to shift during the re-engineering craze of the mid-1980s, workplace experts say.

Once there was a stigma attached to companies that laid people off, but suddenly the practice became common. Even workers at large companies realized that lifetime job security was becoming rare.

Generation X workers, the post-boomers who entered the work force during the height of the downsizing trend, learned they had to watch out for themselves. And when the generation after that came along, workers were routinely changing jobs for the next great opportunity. They had gotten the message: Your career is up to you -- no one will take care of you.

A 2004 Watson-Wyatt survey showed that two out of every three Canadians keep their résumés up to date and less than half are committed to staying with their present employer.

Yet a desire to feel loyal remains. A fall, 2005, survey of Canadians conducted by the Izzo Group for my forthcoming book, Values Shift, showed that 71 per cent of Canadians under 40 would still prefer to stay with one company for their entire career -- if their needs were met by that company. Those needs, however, have changed along with the ever-shifting business climate.

One of the most significant changes is the central role that learning and career development play in the new loyalty.

Gallup's continuing work on employee engagement finds that having opportunities to learn and grow is a strong predictor of employee commitment.

A 2005 survey by Gantz Wiley Research found that the perception that career development opportunities existed within a company -- having opportunities to learn and grow --was the only significant predictor of employee loyalty for Gen X and Gen Y employees. What's more, the survey found that being "interested" in their work was the top predictor for turning down a new job.

A 2005 University of Guelph study found that employees who had made a job change (whether internal or external) were more loyal to their employers following the move. Job changes and new assignments produce more loyal employees even if they stay with the same company.

The point: We may not want to change employers as much as we want to be able to do different things. So the new employee loyalty may go more like this: As long as I am interested in what I am doing, I will stay. Another aspect of the new loyalty: an employee's relationship to the company brand.

Loyalty used to be based mostly on security; employees stayed even though they probably didn't feel a particular emotional connection with their organizations.

But there is mounting evidence that the new loyalty goes beyond self-interest to having an emotional connection and pride in the brand.

A large survey in the hotel industry by Market Metrix in 2004 showed that, when employees felt proud of their brand and had that emotional connection, it was the strongest predictor of loyalty.

And a 2005 survey by Hewlett-Packard Co. found that nine out of 10 Canadians said working for a company that was ethical and socially responsible was very important to them.

WestJet Airlines Ltd. has been running ads for months now saying, "At WestJet, we are owners." This is a company that works very hard to build a strong emotional connection between employee and brand. This kind of loyalty has benefits for a company beyond employee retention.

Employees who feel loyal to the idea of the brand also serve as compelling promoters of it to potential customers and employees, even after they leave its employ. Work-life balance is also a key driving force among the differently loyal.

According to Fortune magazine's studies of the best places to work in 2004 and 2005, more than 90 per cent of the 100 best have extensive programs to help employees achieve work-life balance -- a tenfold increase in 10 years) -- from flex time and job sharing to on-site daycare.

And there is significant evidence that employees who take advantage of those programs identify them as glue that binds them to their employer.

In a workforce.com survey, 60 per cent of workers called the availability of flexible work arrangements a key factor for both retention and choosing an employer. This means that companies that help people have a life and succeed at work get more loyalty. Another element of the new loyalty revolves around relationships at work.

New college graduates, for example, say their personal life is more important than their work life, a 2003 survey of new grads by the Millennium Group found.

According to Gallup, being cared about by others at work and having a best friend at work are both very strong predictors of employee engagement. So, if work feels like a social life, with a strong sense of connection, loyalty is bound to emerge. Finally, we appear to be more loyal to companies that are loyal to us ("d'oh," as Homer Simpson would say).

Fortune Magazine's 2005 survey of best workplaces showed that companies with a history of fewer or no layoffs had much higher employee commitment. Even as the myth of the death of employee loyalty continues, many companies buck the trend of high turnover by appealing to the new loyalty.

TD Industries is one such example. As the only company to make Fortune's list of top 10 to work for over more than a decade, the Dallas-based construction firm has a strong policy of promotion from within, a training culture that sends front-line employees to conferences, a culture that respects people's need to integrate work and life, a strong family feel, and extensive cross-training programs that have kept people employed through boom-and-bust cycles (when things get tough in one part of the business they employ them elsewhere). Its turnover rate is less than 6 per cent in an industry that averages 90 per cent.

BC Biomedical Laboratories Ltd. of Surrey, B.C., which provides medical lab services, has made many "best to work for" lists in Canada. Not surprisingly, it has extremely high levels of employee retention and credits much of its success to schedules that allow its mostly female work force to adjust their work time as needed to fit around personal needs.

The lesson: When companies create opportunities for employees to develop, address their lifestyle needs, help them develop a strong sense of pride and emotional connection and work hard to keep people on the job through tough times, loyalty is far from dead.

John Izzo, PhD, is a speaker and adviser to companies on corporate culture and leadership, and the author of Values Shift: The New Work Ethic.
http://globecareers.workopolis.com/servlet/Content/qprinter/20060303/CALOYALTY03

Crap like that is why you've been unemployed for 36 months, dude.

Regardless of how you feel about a current job, if you're drawing a paycheck, you need to DO that job, to the best of your ability.

If your ability is going to decline dramatically with your enthusiasm

You've been unemployed for 3 years and you're complaining about the fact that employers are less loyal than they once were?

I offer the suggestion that one makes their own way in the world and that in order to get, you must give.

I like hearing myself talk. In other words, both parties have issues with the situation.

Develop some work ethic.

Character defammation is highly entertaining. It's much easier to curb-stomp someone than to be a role model in our society.