Employees held in the utmost affection (5)
I believe the answer is:
staff
'employees' is the definition.
(I've seen this in other clues)
'held in the utmost affection' is the wordplay.
'held in' indicates the answer is hidden within the clue.
'STAFF' can be found hidden inside 'utmost affection'.
(Other definitions for staff that I've seen before include "Rod - workforce" , "Employees; weapon" , "Crew" , "crook" , "men?" .)