But right behind it these days is an old-fashioned benefit that's taken on new luster. It's called training. In the re-engineering frenzy of the late '80s, when corporations reorganized, they were saying to their employees, 'It's your responsibility. Workers took that advice seriously. The firms that Fortune magazine has dubbed the 100 best places to work provided each employee with an average of 43 hours of training in 1998, almost eight hours more than a year earlier, the magazine has reported.
Employers train to increase productivity and introduce workers to new equipment.
But there is also increasing evidence that today's workers are shrewd enough to seek out opportunities to polish their skills. Younger recruits, in particular, aren't at all shy about bringing up the subject in job interviews, Mr. Phelan said. There's no longer a charade that they might be a lifetime employee. They'll sit there and say, 'My plans are to be here for three to five years. Mr. Walter is working on getting certified as a networking engineer skilled in Cisco hardware.