The new employer-employee contract

The relationship between organizations and their employees has shifted radically in the past few decades. While in the early eighties, it was considered perfectly normal to work a lifetime for a single company, employees today routinely switch employers. The moral obligation for employees to pledge their troth to an employer in exchange for guaranteed lifetime employment is a thing of the past. Companies now regularly lay off employees. Employees who leave an employer for a better opportunity are no longer engaging in an act of treason.

In light of this trend, human resources policies must be adapted. Motivating employees who see their future with the company in the short term is completely different from managing lifetime employees for the long haul.

“Treat People Right!” studies all of the facets of an effective HR policy. We focused our analysis on the implications of the death of the mutual fidelity contract and consequently selected the following messages as particularly pertinent:

– Carefully design your human resources policy, because motivating and retaining top talent requires an increasingly targeted approach specific to each employee category.

– Address the void left by the death of the traditional moral contract by articulating a clear value proposition to your employees.

– Help your employees take charge of their own career development.

– Challenge merit-based pay raises.