12 ways to build employee loyalty

Faced with an unprecedented retention crisis, French companies are facing a major challenge: with 445,800 CDI resignations in the first quarter of 2025, and employee engagement declining worldwide (21% in 2024), the urgency of a structured retention strategy has never been more critical. So how do you retain your employees?

This lasting loyalty is based on five fundamentals: improving the quality of working conditions, reinforcing the corporate culture, enhancing the attractiveness of the employer brand, offering opportunities for internal mobility and continuous skills upgrading.

The stakes go beyond simple retention: international studies demonstrate a direct correlation between employee engagement , productivity and economic performance. In this context, massive reinvestment in the employee experience is becoming not only a social necessity, but also a strategic lever for competitiveness.

The question is no longer whether to act, but how to quickly turn this urgency into a competitive advantage.

Contents :

Definition: what is employee retention?
Why loyalty is strategic in 2025
12 loyalty levers to implement (actionable checklist)
90-day implementation method
KPIs to monitor (and alert thresholds)
FAQ
In conclusion
How OuiLive helps you retain talent (as a complement to your HRIS)

Definition: what is employee retention?

Employee retention encompasses all human resources policies and practices designed to retain talent, reduce turnover and strengthen long-termengagement :

Culture,
Management,
QVCT,
Recognition,
Outlook for the future,
Workspaces,
Learning devices.

Why loyalty is strategic in 2025

Pressure on the workforce: in Q1 2025, DARES recorded 492,900 resignations (including 445,800 on permanent contracts) in the private sector. This is forcing companies to secure key skills upstream (before employees leave the company).
Engagement at half-mast: worldwide,engagement will fall to 21% by 2024, with a marked drop among managers, a serious signal for productivity and retention.
Link with performance: meta-analyses (Gallup, HBR) underline the robust relationship between employee engagement and productivity, quality, retention and financial results. In short, employee loyalty is also an investment in corporate performance.

12 loyalty levers to implement (actionable checklist)

Corporate culture & employer brand: Affirm the values we live by every day (clarity of meaning, fairness, recognition). A strong employer brand attracts and retains talent by making recruitment promises tangible.
QWL: Quality of life and working conditions (QWL) structures a dialogue on the actual organization of work (workload, autonomy, resources, cooperation). It is a sustainable lever for improving the working atmosphere, risk prevention and retention.
Close management & recognition: Recognition (formal and informal) and feedback rituals increase the sense of belonging, energy and retention. Give managers the tools they need (interviews, stay interviews, narrative feedback, coaching).
Onboarding: The first few weeks often decide what happens next. A clear integration process, with objectives and mentoring, greatly reduces the risk of early departure.
Up-skilling: development plans, internal mobility, certifications, mentoring: offering visible growth prospects over 6-24 months encourages employees to plan ahead, and builds long-term loyalty.
Work organization and flexibility: Clarify the rules (teleworking, working hours, right to disconnect), structure the workload and the hybrid employee experience to improve quality of life and team performance.
Remuneration and recognition of results: Remuneration remains a cornerstone, but it's perceived fairness, transparency and alignment of objectives and rewards that count for retention.
Team building & cohesion: Collective times (seminars, challenges, celebration rituals) nurture the work atmosphere and confidence. Design formats that are inclusive, regular and linked to business objectives.
Workspaces and ergonomics: The environment (acoustics, lighting, zones for concentration/collaboration) is an often underestimated loyalty driver. Workspaces designed for real activity reduce irritants and micro-frictions.
Career development and internal mobility :

Targeted skills,
Make development prospects visible,
Open up internal gateways (projects, temporary assignments, job crafting)

To avoid talent leaving for lack of prospects.

Monitoring HR data: track voluntary turnover, absenteeism, eNPS, engagement (Q12 or equivalent), internal mobility rate and skills upgrading rate. Cross-reference these KPIs with performance (quality, customer NPS, productivity) to prioritize actions.
Gamification and micro-challenges with OuiLive: To set up fast, fun and measurable actions.

OuiLive offers a 100% mobile platform for launching corporate mobile games in minutes, with leaderboards, challenges and rewards.

Our 200+ templates. A powerful loyalty lever that stimulates participation and drives tangible progress in your KPIs.

90-day implementation method

Week 1-2: diagnosis & management engagement

Measure the situation: turnover, absenteeism, eNPS, QVCT survey (flash).
Align corporate culture and employer brand with 3 priority internal promises (e.g. career, flexibility, recognition).
Quick win: launch an onboarding challenge (OuiLive) for new recruits.

Week 3-6: HR heart projects

Skills: validate a plan to enhance skills and internal mobility (talent pools, multimodal training, mentoring).
Management: recognition kit (weekly rituals, stay interviews, narrative feedback), short training course for managers.
QVCT: co-diagnosis of 2 to 3 major irritants (workload, tools, space), 30/60/90-day action plan.
Gamification: deploy a challenge (OuiLive) to encourage participation, create links and improve the quality of practices.

Week 7-12: Sustainability & proof

Adjust benefits & recognition, clarify development prospects (career maps, mobility).
Set up a dashboardengagement, turnover, mobility, skills progression) and a monthly steering ritual.
Capitalize on your employer brand (testimonials, team success stories, publishable indicators).

KPIs to monitor (and alert thresholds)

Voluntary turnover (rolling 12 months): monitor any deviation ≥ +3 pts vs N-1; cross by critical population.
Engagement (Q12/eNPS) : viser une progression trimestrielle ; attention si eNPS < 0 sur 2 trimestres.
Absenteeism: looking beyond sector or company trends, analyze long-term causes. The 2025 press reports a fall in the rate of absenteeism, but an increase in the number of days off work, hence the importance of preventive action.
Internal mobility & skills enhancement: objectives by penurious professions (certifications, internal missions).
Participation in programs (e.g. OuiLive challenges) and perceived satisfaction.

FAQ

How can you retain employees who are planning to leave?

Conduct a stay interview (active listening, development prospects, recognition),
Clarify a 6-12 month trajectory,
Offer a rich mission with internal mobility
A learning sprint.

What are the quickest loyalty levers to activate?

Structured managerial recognition,
QVCT micro-improvements on major irritants,
Team building and gamified challenges (OuiLive) to boost work atmosphere and participation.

Are employee loyalty and company performance really linked?

Yes, international meta-analyses link engagement to productivity, quality, retention and financial results. In France, the dynamics of labor turnover reinforce the value of investing in retention.

In conclusion

At the end of this article, one thing is clear: retention is not a one-off project, but a living system.

An effective retention strategy starts early, with the recruitment process, and continues throughout the employee's career with tangible proof:

Working conditions,
Management present,
Real prospects for development,
Fair recognition.

In a changing world of work, operational simplicity, listening and iteration are worth more than slogans. Clarify what you expect, align priorities, fund the means, then report on progress.

Your roadmap can be summed up in four verbs:

Clarify (meaning, priorities, roles),
Equipping managers and teams,
Link (actions to useful KPIs),
Celebrate (progress, big and small).

Internal communication is the common thread:

It makes decisions visible,
Opens short feedback loops,
Nurtures the employer brand and
Builds the confidence needed to retain talent without hindering its development.

Feed this system with continuous learning, accessible internal mobility, recognition rituals andengagement management, document, share and adjust.

Then, inspire people to take action every week. Fun, measurable formats like OuiLive mobile games turn HR, CSR and sales objectives into unifying challenges, with rankings, rewards and real-time analytics.

Properly integrated, they support skills development, embody the corporate culture and improve the quality of the employee experience.

Your competitive edge comes from execution: few initiatives, but very well done, metrics tracked, adjustments made quickly.

By doing so, you align performance and fulfillment, reduce turnover and create a lasting dynamic. Loyalty doesn't prevent all departures, it maximizes the value of every experience and leaves a lasting impression.

In other words, a robust loyalty strategy is a business investment: it attracts, develops and retains, and enables the company to grow with its teams.

How OuiLive helps you retain talent (as a complement to your HRIS)

Fast, turnkey launch: +200 ready-to-use templates.
100% mobile format to stimulate participation: challenges, rankings, rewards.
Real-time analytics to trackengagement and link your actions to HR KPIs (participation, progress, satisfaction).
Use cases: onboarding, culture & values, health prevention, skills development, sales activation, CSR, cohesion.

Sources (for further information)

HR and QWL

CSR

Communication

Sales