Female employees in the media, travel and leisure sectors have the highest levels of employee loyalty.
Share plan registrar Equiniti's Workplace Loyalty Index also reveals a general increase in employee loyalty as a result of providing staff with shares in the organisations they work.
The greatest loyalty boost can be seen among employees aged between 41 and 50, who move from being the least loyal age group to the second most loyal after receiving some form of employee share plan.
Females with an employee share plan versus those without demonstrate a three-fold boost in loyalty compared to their male counterparts.
In general terms, more than half of women would say they are very loyal to their workplace (56%) compared to 43% of men. One in four females describes themselves as somewhat loyal (26%) compared to 29% of men.
The research also found that Generation Y employees (typically adults aged 30 and below) are just as likely to be as loyal to their employers as those aged between 51 and 60.
The biggest boost to workplace loyalty via employee share plans was in the media and food and beverage sectors, while the most loyal employees without an employee share plan, by sector, are in construction and materials and retail.
Wayne Story, chief executive of Equiniti, said: “We were surprised at some of the findings in our latest research that looked into the levels and drivers of workplace loyalty.
“Younger employees, what we are referring to as Generation Ys, are often regarded as less loyal compared to say long-serving employees; †however, our research shows that their levels of workplace loyalty are actually the highest amongst those people up to age 60 with 49.5% of Generation Ys stating they were very loyal to their workplace.
“Our figures showed also their average levels of workplace loyalty were further boosted when they were able to access an employee share plan.”
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