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A friend recently postponed our plans to meet for lunch since he was already scheduled to attend a "going-away" party for one of his fellow employees.

His associate had a given his two-week notice and would soon be heading off to a new job across town. A few days later my friend and I discussed the luncheon and how they made a big fanfare of the employee's departure.

The question we had was why we traditionally celebrate someone's contribution when they are leaving rather than while they still work for us.

Further begging the question was that the departing employee was leaving to work for a competitor. Some might consider that disloyal and not something to necessarily reward with a celebration.

We also wondered if they had shown the employee how much he was appreciated all along, would he now be leaving to join a competitor's operation? How much could that have cost? Certainly it would have taken some time and time is money. But the cost of recruiting and hiring a replacement, training, new business cards and such can add up.

Perhaps the greater expense is the money you invested in this employee's training, and worse yet, your competitor now has someone on their payroll who knows your entire operations.

I'm reminded of something my old friend and college mentor told me. Jack Lewis, president and CEO of Marketing International in La Jolla, Calif., saw his company grow to more than 25 employees. He started holding annual company picnics.

He said that after looking across the crowd of people gathered at that first celebration, he realized how many lives he was responsible for as their leader. His epiphany was that each decision he makes not only affects the success of the company but also his employees' well-being as well as their families.

And he also realized that his employees choose to work for him based on his ability to create value and a long-term home for themselves as well as their families. As Jack said, "It was a humbling experience."

It is hoped that most managers eventually realize, as I have, that success as a leader is also dependent on your employees' efforts on your behalf.

The rub is that your employees don't have to work for you. Rather, they choose to work for you. This should be a concern for local employers, since unemployment figures in the Albuquerque area are at an all-time low, which means demand for talent is outpacing supply.

I publish a list of local marketing and sales jobs that I share via a monthly e-mail with my students and members of the 10-plus marketing-related professional associations in the state (from the American Marketing Association to the Public Relations Society of America to NMAdFed). The number of local job openings is increasing.

There are a growing number of companies relocating here and local companies that are expanding their operations, such as Advent Solar, CitiCards and Lumidigm, to name a few (source: "New and Expanding Companies," Albuquerque Economic Development, abq.org). Local employees will have more career options to chose from than ever before.

As Pope John Paul II said: "People are more important than things; that work is `for man' and not man `for work'; that the person is both the subject and the purpose of all work and cannot be reduced to a mere instrument of production."

Maybe it's time to celebrate your employees while they are on your payroll rather than when they are walking out the door.