Retaining talent is very important in any organisation. Keeping your top performers and preventing your best employees from looking for opportunities with your competitors is much cheaper than constantly recruiting new ones. This article will outline the main things which employers can do to retain talent and will outline some key points which can be used to improve staff retention.

Retention is not always easy

Talent management and employee retention is critical to the success of an organisation. Without a focus and an understanding of people, behaviours, and what engagement and rewards strategies work best for your culture, attracting the right talent and reducing turnover can be even more difficult.

If you want to be one of the talented individuals that your Organisation wants to keep, here are some key things to consider:

1. Be positive in your approach

No one wants to be surrounded by miserable naysayers. Make sure that you get noticed for the right reasons! Be positive in your approach to your role and your colleagues. Make a determination to enjoy a different aspect of your role every single day and publicise it.

• In 2001, the focus was on attracting and retaining 'high potential' and 'high performing' employees.
• In 2014, however, 66 percent of respondents are saying it's much more important for organisations to have a holistic approach to talent management that addresses the needs of all employees as well as those in critical roles.

Judging by persistently high unemployment levels in many countries, and growing pools of potential recruits in the developing world, policymakers and business leaders may be forgiven for viewing "talent wars" as a relic of a pre-downturn idyll.

• Conduct an employee satisfaction survey at least once a year.
• Initiate interviews and surveys concerning the real reasons people come to and leave your organisation.

by Dr Robert Edmonson, Principal Consultant, Paradigm21 Group

Feedback is a GIFT….when given and received constructively

by Robert Schriek, Executive Coach, Paris-London-Amsterdam-Brussels

1. Self awareness

Being yourself is a good thing. Trying to be someone else will invariably seem false and make you feel uncomfortable. It may even undermine your self confidence. Pretending to be someone else also takes a lot of energy.

by Quentin Millington

"In a big organisation like ours," explained Charles, managing director at the sharp end of a global firm, "all that people stuff is done by HR."