Employees invest in the company's adaptability the company invests in employees' employability. Under the new compact, both employer and employee seek to add value to each other. 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.

A new arrangement is needed, the authors argue-one built on alliance (usually temporary) and reciprocity. That has recently changed, giving way to a transactional, laissez-faire approach that serves neither party well. 'For most of the 20th century, the relationship between employers and employees in the developed world was all about stability and lifetime loyalty.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. 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. 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. 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. We can rebuild that lost trust with straight talk that recognizes the realities of the modern economy. Sadly, trust in the business world is hovering at an all-time low.

But this win-win scenario will only happen if both sides trust each other enough to commit to mutual investment and mutual benefit. And your employees want the firm to help transform their careers for the long term. As a manager you want your employees to help transform the company for the future.

The solution? Stop thinking of employees as either family or free agents.

'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 alliance hoffman