Talent Flow

Talent Flow

A set of best practices to develop a targeted and structured retention strategy.

Author(s): Robert Levin, Joseph Rosse

Publisher: Jossey-Bass

Date of publication: 2001

Manageris opinion

This rather dense book is based on a powerful concept, i.e. there is no point in trying to retain all employees, because only the best ones are worth keeping! In this context, focusing on reducing the average rate of employee turnover is a fundamental error. What companies really need is a targeted and structured retention strategy. According to the (American) authors, the issue of retention thus cannot be considered without also a look at the other side of the coin, that is, the need to fire bad employees (chapters 8 to 10).
To retain good employees, the authors propose a set of best practices that should inspire any manager or leader. Quitting is primarily a way for employees to respond to their dissatisfaction, the nature of which can be analyzed with the tools presented in chapter 11. This discontentment may arise from three different factors. Confronted with difficulties of a personal nature or linked to the competitive environment (economic or technological context, etc.), companies have no other choice than to adapt, by following the advice in chapters 4 and 5. However, they have greater means at their disposal to modify factors connected with working conditions (chapter 6), whose decisive importance is often underestimated.
This book not only offers valuable advice on improving your employee retention, but more importantly, will convince managers to pose some fundamental questions about their company’s retention policy.