Yes, employees are expensive, but they're also the companies biggest assets. It's worth treating them well. Without them, you're nothing.
If a company wants loyalty from their employees, they have to demonstrate their own loyalty towards their employees first.
Edit: maybe calling employees assets is wrong, because you don't own or control them. The relationships with your employees (and those with your customers) are your biggest assets. Ruin those relationships, and you squander your biggest sources of expertise and revenue.
Plenty of lifestyle business owners would beg to differ.
> If a company wants loyalty from their employees, they have to demonstrate their own loyalty towards their employees first.
How? What's loyalty in this context anyway? Working your ass off for your employer? Or perhaps not firing someone even though he's holding your business back? I would recommend neither.
You seem to have a very limited view of employer-employee relationships. Work is a big part of our life, but not all of it. We don't live to work, but work to live. Just acknowledging that would go a long way. Give employees the room they need to get their lives in order if they need it. Don't work them til they drop, but give them a healthy amount of vacation time, and only ask them to work overtime in extreme cases. Make sure they're happy. Invest in their training. Don't screw them over. Don't treat them as expendable resources. And when someone is holding your business back, maybe figure out why that is, before you blindly fire him.
You asked: "What's loyalty in this context anyway? Working your ass off for your employer? Or perhaps not firing someone even though he's holding your business back? I would recommend neither."
I consider those very short-sighted interpretations of loyalty, so I gave some better examples. If you don't want them, then don't ask for them.
I'm completely baffled by your reaction to receiving an answer to your question.
If a company wants loyalty from their employees, they have to demonstrate their own loyalty towards their employees first.
Edit: maybe calling employees assets is wrong, because you don't own or control them. The relationships with your employees (and those with your customers) are your biggest assets. Ruin those relationships, and you squander your biggest sources of expertise and revenue.