The traditional model of lifetime employment, so well-suited to periods of relative stability, is too rigid for today’s networked age, Reid Hoffman, cofounder of LinkedIn and two co-authors state in “The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age” (Harvard Business Review Press).
They promote a new employment framework — an alliance based on how they can add value to each other. “Employers need to tell their employees, ‘Help make our company more valuable and we’ll make you more valuable.’ ”
Many HR leaders and executives — and sales managers — get frustrated when they spend a lot of money on training and development programs, only to see employees walk out the door months later. The natural response is to slash training budgets. Why train a competitor’s new hire?
“In an alliance, the manager can speak openly and honestly about the investment the company is willing to make in the employee and what it expects in return. The employee can speak openly and honestly about the type of growth he seeks (skills, experiences and the like) and what he will invest in the company in return by way of effort and commitment. Both sides set clear expectations,” the authors state.
LinkedIn executive Kevin Scott models this concept by asking those he manages, “What job do you envision having after you leave LinkedIn?’ He asks the same question of people who are interviewing for jobs — “What job do you want after you work at LinkedIn?”
Rich Lesser, the CEO of The Boston Consulting Group, calls it building an “opt-in” culture. “The reality of being an employer is not that you make people feel an obligation to stay,” he says. “You hire the best people you can possibly find. Then it’s up to you to create an environment where great people decide to stay and invest their time. Since we made this an emphasis, our employee satisfaction scores have been better than ever, and our retention of top talent is substantially higher than a decade ago.”
Reid Hoffman recently discussed the concept of workplace tours of duty and other ideas from “The Alliance” with Charlie Rose. Read more about the book here and watch the Charlie Rose interview here.
