Loyalty is supposed to one of those things beyond value, like a Mother's love and a really good apple pie. However, as any random passing economist will tell you just because you cannot assign a monetary value doesn't mean that people don't value it: you just need to be a little creative in getting them to reveal the value they do indeed place upon it.



The value that companies put upon loyalty is in one sense entirely open: how much less are they paying you than what the company down the street is offering? That's exactly the value that they place upon your loyalty: or if you prefer, the value that they don't have to pay you because of your loyalty.

That's a rather cynical view of the world of course so we should also consider why companies might in fact value loyalty in a rather deeper manner. Our random economist, now safely captured, can tell us more here as well. In recent decades there has been a huge change in what it is that constitutes the value of a company. Back with Henry Ford it was simple: it was the factories, the machines, the distribution network that made his company worth a lot of money. That's what is generally called physical capital.

Nowadays most of the value of a company is tied up in what is called human capital: sure, the office building has value as an office but you can get that by simply renting it out to someone else. What makes the company profits is the knowledge in the minds of the employees. This is what is known as human capital and it's a very worrying thing for the owners when they know that the majority of the value of the company goes up and down in the lifts each day.

Loyalty, both from staff and to staff is therefore essential in the modern corporation. Those managers who don't offer it find that they don't get it back either and this, in the long run at least, will reduce the value of the company. So the truth is that a company (at least if it wants to survive) has to value the loyalty of the employees to it, for that is what makes it valuable in the first place.

If you're feeling a little cheeky of course you can work out the actual number attached to that first definition of corporate loyalty above: simply talk to your recruitment consultant at Talisman to find out what the company over the road is indeed offering.