In The Alliance by Reid Hoffman, Ben Casnocha, and Chris Yeh , a book which addresses talent management in companies, here are a few things out of many I learned.
The relationship between employees and employers shouldn’t be described as a family (as most people like to do because it looks cool) but as a team. You can’t fire a family member from a family but you can fire a teammate from a team. Just this change of word removes unnecessary sentiments and hard feelings.
During recruitment, Ask the prospective employee what company does he/she want to work for after your company or who does he/she want to be like and work out the best way you can help him/her achieve that. It’s an alliance.
You invest in employees helping them achieve their reason(s) for being in the company while they, in turn, help the company achieve its goal(s). It’s an alliance in which both parties should gain from, their stay is voluntary and you can only hope they’d find the company engaging enough remain. So it’s okay to invest hoping they’d stay longer but the focus is on how both parties can win at the end of the day and be happy with the alliance.
Push for policies that allow employees to build their personal brands and thought leadership.
Ask every employee to produce a list of the smartest people he knows who do not work at the company. Network matters too.
Having a company alumni association helps reduce the cost of hiring, increases business referral rate, boosts brand awareness and motivates current employees.
A leader’s job is not to put greatness into people, but rather to recognize that it already exists, and to create the environment where that greatness can emerge and grow.
Brad Smith. CEO, Intuit