HRGuru

Personally, this sounds like some euphoric policy dreamed up to make the exec look popular.  It's tenure in the business world and tenure has not worked in educational systems.  It leads to reduced, sustained poorer performance over the long haul.   One, his business would have to be completely isolated from all the economic affects the rest of the business world has to compete with.    When a serious downturn hits their industry and thier company, they'll quickly shelve this policy and come out and lay people off.   And when that does happen, he's likely to face personal lawsuits for fraudulent misrepresentation.   Unless he can personally guarantee all these employees' wages and benefits out of his own pocket there is no such thing as a job for life.    Our grandfathers and grandmothers may have had it, but it today's world where globalization means the loss of business to other countries who have the ability to out compete us on price and regulations, this is a risky practice.   If this is a publicly traded company I hope his board is aware of the policy and willing to share the risks with him.

A solid seniority system, based on reasonable standards and metrics combined with very frequent and open communications about the health of the company will do the most amount of good, and I'd say even better than a no lay-off policy, as far as comforting people.   I worked with a bank, that for for 5 1/2 years was on the verge of being taken over by the government every day they opened.  The threat of everyrone losing their job was immediate and serious, every day.  But the people worked there and stayed there because they believed in the message of the leader and they believed in their capabilities to help solve the problem, not because they were guaranteed their job.   The company achieved what no other company ever had acheieved before and that is they sued and won the lawsuit agains the US Govt for a breach of contract based upon a negotiated sale of a failing bank and the passage of FIREA several years later.  

Part of my consulting living is working with colleges and universities to "fire" tenured professors, who no longer perform to the necessary standards.  Trust me, this is not easy, takes a long time, costs a lot of money, and proves tenure is a detriment to a business.  

I know I may sound harsh and I'm gonna get some flack on this, I'm sure.  I do believe a company should value its people above all else, be open and honest, and people should be the last thing to consider when looking into fixing a declining business model.  But in the end, a business has only 3 goals:  1) To make a product or service that people want to buy;  2) To make a profit; 3)  To sustain itself and stay in business.       Every business has to manage these 3 goals.  It's the how of managing these goals that sets one management team in one company apart from another.    Making "pie-in-the-sky" promises is a great way to lose your credibility and respect very quickly.

I grew up in the finance business and over the years have had to lay-off more than 15,000 workers and I know what it does to them and their families, friends, and communities.   Many of the banks I worked for were put out of business, not because they didn't do a great job of running their business.  They were put out of business by govern'mental regulation, and in some cases, deregulation of the banking and securties industries.  And that in itself has also lead to some of the banking problems we have today.

That's my opinion and I'm sticking with it and I approve this message!  Ok, now hit me with your best shot!