Things are changing in our dynamic economy. For companies that pride themselves on retention, and rightfully correlate those high retention rates to their ability to deliver top-tier satisfaction, the challenges are growing. And, there’s also the paradox that working for well-esteemed companies makes employees even more desirable to other employers. So how can a company get ahead of all this and keep its rockstar employees in their chairs?

Well there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Just as your company will be judged by how well it understands the complex needs of its clients, it also must have a deep understanding of its top employees and their motivations.

You need to be able to give those rock stars what they want. Usually it’s promotions, money and interesting projects, but there could be other things. We recommend someone from the top sit and get coffee with the person and try to get a sense of what they’re looking for in the company. Make it as informal as possible but let the person know how much they are appreciated. This talk shouldn’t sound canned or perfunctory. Again, just as there’s a race to best understand your clients’ needs, there’s a race to understand your workers as well.

It’s important to know the challenges. Freelance/ Contract work and a growing sense of entrepreneurship are the big ones. Loyalty can have its price, and that’s not a bad thing if you know what it is. Both trends are growing, and it’s getting sort of strange to hear someone’s been with the company for 20 years. It just doesn’t happen very often today, but it does still happen. And you can help make it happen.

About NextGen

NextGen is the brainchild of longtime telecom professionals with nearly 50 years of experience and millions of dollars in Telecom Recruiting Services. We focus on establishing long term relationships with our clients and candidates so we can recruit the best and the brightest in the telecom industry. This ‘quality over quantity’ approach is at the heart of everything we do and has resulted in successful job placements at Fortune 1000 firms worldwide.