Retention Strategies Get Real

The famous Google approaches to retention, which to the outside appear nearly hedonistic in their pervasiveness and depth are actually aimed at removing all distractions from employees; lives so they can concentrate on the complex problems the software company is trying to solve (Shipman, 2006). The press grabs onto the chefs, the working areas that are more like living rooms and the free soft drinks and snacks. Yet these are all evidence of a more fundamental strategy with regard to retention. Google strives to create a culture where employees can take a strong sense of ownership over their projects and in fact provides engineers with one day a week for working on their own projects, initiated and driven entirely on their own. This is called the 20% Rule at Google has now accounted for over 50% of new product development (Sachitanand, 2008). This ownership of innovation and the opportunity to earn significant respect in the industry are powerful retention...

As with the hiring practice, companies attaining high levels of retention also provide employees with the opportunity to mastery of their areas.
References

Sandra K. Collins. (2007). Employee Recruitment: Using Behavioral Assessments as an Employee Selection Tool. The Health Care Manager, 26(3), 213-217.

Minnesh Kaliprasad. (2006). The Human Factor I: Attracting, Retaining, and Motivating Capable People. Cost Engineering, 48(6), 20-26.

Rahul Sachitanand. (2008, April). GEs innovation hub: Quietly, GE's decade-old John F.Welch Technology Centre in Bangalore is making breakthrough innovations in everything from wind turbines to X-ray machines to new-age locomotives.. Business Today.

Debra Shipman. (2006). Can we learn a few things from Google? Nursing Management, 37(8), 10-12.

Starks, G., & Brooks, F. (2009). Strategic Human Capital Planning: Recruiting and Retaining New…