The Alliance

Redefining workplace loyalty for a more networked age As individual workers become more entrepreneurial--managing their own careers, jumping from job-to-job and assembling their own distinctive professional narratives--the burden is now on managers to keep an organization running. "The Alliance" addresses this very real challenge both for companies and their people. Written by an impressive trio of thinkers and doers--LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, author and entrepreneur Ben Casnocha, and executive and investor Chris Yeh--the book offers the first concrete advice on generating value both for employees and companies in today's networked world. Building on their 2013 article in "Harvard Business Review" ("Tours of Duty: The New Employer-Employee Compact," June 2013), the authors propose a new framework that unearths opportunity for all parties involved in the pact, reflecting an optimistic view of future employee-employer relations. The framework--or new talent alliance--relies on a modern system of loyalty between companies and employees. No longer one based on lifetime employment, this updated approach takes into account today's volatile economic realities and moves from a transactional to a relational approach between parties. The pact nets benefits for each: the employee makes the company more valuable through his work and in turn, the firm invests back into that employee's growth and, therefore, his overall employability. This mutually beneficial deal constitutes the new loyalty pact based on trust and investment--something employers, managers, and employees can agree on.