Page 24 - Retaining Top Employees
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                                 12     Retaining Top Employees



                                                     Plan to Address Higher Needs
                                            In  designing  your  employee  retention  strategy,recognize  in
                                          advance that compensation and benefits are just a start (as
                                  we’ll  cover  in  Chapter  5),so  you  can  begin  dealing  with  the  other,higher
                                  needs of your employees. By anticipating those higher needs and plan-
                                  ning  in  advance  to  meet  them—once  you’ve  addressed  the  basic,mone-
                                  tary needs—you and your fellow managers will not be surprised when
                                  your  employees  begin  that  dialogue. In  fact,you’ll  be  prepared  for  it.
                                 this section by looking at the main trends that are impacting
                                 approaches to employee retention currently and are likely to do
                                 so increasingly in the near future.
                                    In particular, we will look at four prominent factors in current
                                 thinking on employee retention:

                                    • Core competencies and outsourcing
                                    • The rise of the “free agent”
                                    • The so-called “war for talent”
                                    • Becoming an employer of choice
                                 Core Competencies and Outsourcing
                                 In 1990 C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel wrote an article titled
                                 “The Core Competence of the Corporation” (Harvard Business
                                 Review, May-June 1990). Their idea—that organizations had
                                         core competencies (skills and activities that are essen-
                                                                   tial to an organization’s
                                          Core competence (or
                                                                   success and that the
                                          competency) “A bundle    organization must do well)
                                          of skills and technologies
                                                                   and not-so-core compe-
                                  that enables a company to provide a
                                                                   tencies (skills and activi-
                                  particular benefit to customers.”
                                  That’s how C.K. Prahalad and Gary  ties that are not essential
                                  Hamel define this term in Competing  to an organization’s suc-
                                  for the Future. Core competencies  cess and that it probably
                                  contribute to the competitiveness of  isn’t doing well)—slowly
                                  a range of products or services.They  gained acceptance as a
                                  transcend any particular product or  competitive strategy. As a
                                  service and perhaps any particular
                                                                   result, the book that
                                  business unit within the organization.
                                                                   Prahalad and Hamel pub-
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