Once upon a time, an employer could threaten to fire an employee for not dropping everything to come into work on a Saturday—but not anymore. Today’s employer-employee relationships are drastically different from what they were 10, 20, 30 years ago. As the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we work, more and more companies are beginning to realize that if they want their workers to stay, they need to treat them with respect and match their values.

Philip Romm, founder and chief human capital strategist at EliteHR, sees evidence of unwritten employer-employee contracts every day as he advises growing companies about their strategic HR. In th ...