If you’re following trends, you’ll notice that a significant number of workers want to make a difference where they work, want community in their workplace, and want their company to make a difference in the community in which they live.

That’s a real shift from the days of the unwritten employment contract that whispered, as long as you show up and do your job, you’ll have a job until you retire. In those days Americans didn’t need community in the workplace, they found it in the community. They felt relatively safe and secure. They joined clubs, attended churches, volunteered services, and enjoyed neighborhood socials.

The era of gold watch employment ended when mergers and acquisitions began. Safety and security was something you bought in the hardware store.  Two career families were the order of the day and multi tasking meant you worked more than one job. There wasn’t time to do anything but job #1 and that meant keeping your job.

Fewer people socialized for the camaraderie, for the sport, for the good of it. (For more on this, check out Bowling Alone, The Collapse and Revival of American Community, by Robert D. Putnam, Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University.  Dr. Putnam was in Greensboro in November and spoke with community leaders about research that describes 30 years of declining interest and trust in networks and communities, and the impact that has on education, crime, and the economy.)

Today, employees have jobs that last from pay check to pay check with no guarantees attached. Accordingly, they have responded with their own unwritten agreement: I’ll stay as long as you provide what I need and if someone else can provide more of it, I’ll go with them.

Employees say, in record numbers, that they are stressed by the uncertainty they experience in the workplace. What they want at the end of the day is to go home and cocoon until they have to venture out again. They don’t have the energy to socialize, at least not like they used to.

If workplace stress erodes social capital, individuals are less effective. Those catchy phrases, “Keep your head down”; “watch your back”; “trust no one”; collide with a basic human need to connect to places and people where and with whom they spend more time and energy than anywhere else.

Many people see socializing as a need more than a want. For them it’s about synergy and the whole being greater than the sum of its parts; that people feel more in balance and productive when they interact with others in venues where they find mutual value, importance, and respect.

The good news is that savvy business leaders are reading the polls, watching the surveys, and counting the numbers of employees who leave and don’t return.  They’re getting it and responding in ways that are working.

For the last five years Fortune Magazine has published its list of 100 Best Companies to Work for In America. The summary data, based on questionnaires completed by company employees, describe many of the “best” companies valuing what’s important to the people who work for them. They highlight companies that donate time and money to community causes; that train, develop, and educate their employees.

They focus on leader/managers who communicate, non stop, the vision and values of the company; what’s important, why, and how each employee can contribute individually and as a team, to making it happen. They say that the best companies do the right things for the right reasons and encourage their employees to do the same.

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Yes! You may use this article by Executive and Career Coach, Joyce Richman, in your blog, article in your blog, newsletter or website as long as you include the following bio box:

Joyce Richman (www.joycerichman.com) has been specializing in executive and career coaching since she started her own practice in 1982. She works in a variety of environments including: higher education, manufacturing, sales, marketing, media, technology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, banking and finance, service, IT, and non-profit sectors. A member of the adjunct faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership, Joyce is certified to administer a number of feedback and psychological instruments. Joyce is a weekly guest on WFMY-TV and the career columnist for The Greensboro News & Record. She is the author of Roads, Routes and Ruts: A Guidebook to Career Success and co-author of Getting Your Kid Out of the House and Into a Job. A popular speaker, Richman conducts seminars and workshops throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Her coaching profile can be found at TheCoachingAssociation.com