Situational Loyalty vs. Company Loyalty
by David G. Jensen, Search Masters International
My dad worked for General Electric for 45 years before he retired with a gold watch. He’d cringe if he were alive today to see how company loyalty has changed over the last ten years.
As everyone knows, job security is just a fleeting memory of the past — in both large and small companies. We speak to hundreds of people each week about their feelings of security and their attitude toward the present employer. Contrary to the negative stereotype, headhunters don’t plant seeds to sow company disloyalty. Recruiters know that disloyal people are probably going to be that way somewhere down the line with their clients as well. Good consultants actually consider themselves as team members in their client organizations.
However, one kind of loyalty consistently comes up with the better candidates. It is not the old-fashioned "rah-rah" loyalty to the company that went with my father’s days in the Fortune 10. Instead, it is a loyalty to the present circumstances — a "Situational Loyalty" — that ties the employee to the smaller sphere of their current group or project. Running into strong bonds in this area is when it truly becomes hard to recruit a stellar candidate.
Company loyalty has changed to a more personal, team-oriented allegiance that can provide a tougher defense against headhunting than the old style "wave the company banner." Is your company fostering this through the actions of your team leaders?
Author:
Dave Jensen
500 Foothills South, Suite 2
Sedona, AZ 86336
To reach Search Masters International, contact
career@searchmastersinternational.com
(630) 663-9140
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david_g_jensen@yahoo.com
© Copyright 2000 by David G. Jensen, Sedona, AZ 86336-5085. Contact the author for reprint permission.