In some cases, employees who worked on assembly lines making Lincoln products donned suits and went out on sales calls instead. It's a great investment to train people. You lose that when you have layoffs. After three years of service, employees get to keep their jobs until they retire as long as they agree to accept pay cuts or reassignments if necessary. Under the guaranteed-employment policy, employees may be asked to work overtime to meet surges in demand or to cut back on their hours if demand wanes.
Pay can vary, too.
Policies such as Lincoln's can help strengthen an organization in hard times, management experts say. Employees are more loyal if they know the company is doing all it can to preserve their jobs. And they're more likely to help develop new ways to pinch pennies if they know their pay could depend on their ingenuity. Clearly, shareholders are an import constituency. Corporations that depend on human capital are going to have to start giving employee interests a higher weighting in their decisions and behavior.