Have you lost a talented and especially promising employee recently?

If so, the thought of that individual’s departure probably conjures visions of all the process and procedure involved in properly facilitating their exit from your organization, as well as the time, effort and cost of recruiting their replacement. That is, if you can find and attract someone of the same caliber.

For far too many employers, effective recruiting has been hampered by ineffectual corporate practices regarding employee retention. Many face a persistent recruiting challenge simply because they have a longstanding retention problem.

And, it’s important to point out, when I refer to retention I’m not talking about the extension of a counter-offer to someone who has just announced their intention to leave.

Rather, a sensible employee retention program is proactive and built with some flexibility to offer compelling inducements for people to stay. It’s also designed to help alleviate some of the pressures that the corporate staffing folks invariably face whenever the wider economy is in growth mode and there’s a seller’s market for good talent – at any level.

So what can you do to retain your best talent? I’m glad you asked, and happy to share some informed opinion about what works:

• Get into the habit of measuring and rewarding performance – There is a growing movement with many companies to more effectively benchmark the performance of individuals, teams and overall business units. This way, employers can make smarter, more informed decisions about where to make key investments, and in whom. Talented people want to work in an environment they can feel good about, and by measuring everyone’s performance, you not only identify the people who need to step things up but you also identify those who are consistently delivering the results your organization needs. Sow the seeds of career advancement and many of your best performers will want to stay and grow with your team.
• Tell emerging leaders that they have a bright future in your lab – Some companies believe that telling a so-called ‘high-potential’ employee that he or she is indeed destined for success is a mistake because they might change their behavior and/or their attitude, which could hurt wider employee morale. But you owe it to them to share the organization’s confidence in their growth potential, so long as you point out they can behave their way right out of the succession plan, too.
• Offer some form of tuition reimbursement – Anyone who wants to invest the time and energy to pursue another degree in their limited time outside of your work environment obviously has the energy to do great things for your organization. And you’d be surprised at just how compelling an offer of tuition assistance can be to these career climbers.
• Take action on bad hires before they cause broader morale and productivity issues – The business of recruiting new talent requires us to make decisions about people, and even those who make a living in recruiting will tell you that there’s always the chance for some standard deviation in their hiring decisions. But if you make a poor hiring decision, don’t force your best people to live with your mistake, otherwise you’ll subject your entire team to a potential loss of morale and productivity. You can actually retain your best performers by weeding out your worst performers and the people you should have never hired in the first place.

Joseph Daniel McCool is a writer, speaker and independent consultant on workforce management, recruiting best practices, and corporate management succession. He is the author of a forthcoming book about global executive recruitment and its impact on corporate performance, culture and profits. He is a senior contributing editor with ExecuNet, a leading executive business, recruiting and referral network, and his perspectives on recruiting best practices have been cited in BusinessWeek, The Economist, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal and other media around the world. Contact him at JoeMcCool@comcast.net.