Page 28 - Retaining Top Employees

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16 Retaining Top Employees

that stock options have come to play in employee retention.
A much more important and lasting aspect of the dot-com
era that will continue to materially impact many employers’
approaches to employee
Free agent An independ- retention is the rise of the
ent worker. Free agents external consultant or
would include the self- free agent.
employed,freelancers,independent Buoyed by a high
contractors,people running home- economy, large sums of
based businesses or “micro business-
money in the system, and
es,” solo practitioners, and independ-
the enormous demand for
ent professionals. Some studies have
estimated that free agents account for almost every imaginable
one-third of the workforce. skill, many employees
launched themselves into
self-employment. (At the height of free agency, Daniel H. Pink
in his book, Free Agent Nation [Warner Books, 2001], estimat-
ed—somewhat liberally—that 33 million people had adopted
this status.)
Although described in many different (and often exotic) ways,
free agent status is in essence the employee response to the core
competency argument. The argument around the kitchen table or
inside the free agent’s head goes something like this:
1. If my employer can redefine its core competency at any
time, I have no job security left. I can be deemed “non-
core” at any time and let go. Maybe I should take my des-
tiny into my own hands.
2. This core competency model is a good one. If organizations
have core competencies, so have I. I’ll find out what my
core competency is and then sell it to the highest bidder.
3. Concentrating on core competencies, resizing, downsizing
... whatever you call it, it all means one thing to me—I’m
under even more pressure to do more in less time with
fewer resources. My entire work-life balance is shot to
pieces. I’ll become a free agent. When I’m free from these
importunate demands from my employer, I can develop a