The Alliance

"Introducing the new, realistic loyalty pact between employer and employee The employer-employee relationship is broken, and managers face a seemingly impossible dilemma: the old model of guaranteed long-term employment no longer works in a business environment defined by continuous change, but neither does a system in which every employee acts like a free agent. The solution? Stop thinking of employees as either family or free agents. Think of them instead as allies. As a manager you want your employees to help transform the company for the future. And your employees want the firm to help transform their careers for the long term. But this win-win scenario will only happen if both sides trust each other enough to commit to mutual investment and mutual benefit. Sadly, trust in the business world is hovering at an all-time low. We can rebuild that lost trust with straight talk that recognizes the realities of the modern economy. So, paradoxically, the alliance begins with managers acknowledging that great employees might leave the company, and with employees being honest about their own career aspirations. By putting this new alliance at the heart of your talent management strategy, you'll not only bring back trust, you'll be able to recruit and retain the entrepreneurial individuals you need to adapt to a fast-changing world. These individuals-flexible, creative, and with a bias toward action-thrive when they're on a specific "tour of duty"-when they have a mission that's mutually beneficial to employee and company that can be completed in a realistic period of time. Coauthored by the founder of LinkedIn, this bold but practical guide for managers and executives will give you the tools you need to recruit, manage, and retain the kind of employees who will make your company thrive in today's world of constant innovation and fast-paced change. "-- "For most of the 20th century, the relationship between employers and employees in the developed world was all about stability and lifetime loyalty. That has recently changed, giving way to a transactional, laissez-faire approach that serves neither party well. A new arrangement is needed, the authors argue--one built on alliance (usually temporary) and reciprocity. The high-tech start-up community of Silicon Valley is pointing the way--and companies that wish to be similarly agile and entrepreneurial can learn valuable lessons from its example. Under the new compact, both employer and employee seek to add value to each other. Employees invest in the company's adaptability; the company invests in employees' employability. Hoffman (a cofounder of LinkedIn), Casnocha (a technology entrepreneur), and Yeh (an entrepreneur and angel investor) outline three simple, straightforward ways in which companies can make the new compact tangible and workable. These are (1) hiring employees for explicit "tours of duty," (2) encouraging, even subsidizing, employees' efforts to build networks outside the organization, and (3) establishing active alumni networks that will enable career-long relationships with employees after they've moved on. In the war for talent, such a compact can be a secret weapon that helps you fill your ranks with the creative, adaptive superstars who fuel entrepreneurial success"--