This section includes peer reviewed journal articles that are relevant to the areas TalentDrain specialises in. There is a growing body of academic research on retention globally and TalentDrain will add to its knowledge library as and when articles are published. We will also include in this area any articles written for TalentDrain by other experts in the field.

Recessionary Management: The Top Do’s and Don’ts for Managing Talent in the Current Downturn
(Taleo Research with the Human Capital Institute 2009)

This study is based on a survey of 345 executives, human capital and HR practitioners taken mid-November to December in 2008. In addition key players in a variety of areas relevant to talent management and recessionary talent management practices were interviewed. Read More

Talent Retention: Six Technology-Enabled Best Practices
(Taleo 2009)

The importance of top performer retention is a topic that consistently leads in HR and business surveys alike. Notably more than 1,000 CEO’s were asked:

“How important are the following sources of competitive advantage in sustaining your growth over the long term?” The number one response chosen by 97% - was access to, and retention of, key talent”. Read More

Effect of Commuting Times on Employee Retention
(TalentDrain Research Report 2009)

Research carried out by TalentDrain (Australia) to support the Local Employer Awards investigated the relationship between where you live and where you work, and its impact on employee retention. The intention was to try and understand how important it is for employers to recruit locally, and whether having a strong local Employer Value Proposition is critical in terms of attracting and retaining the right employees. Read More

Managing Tomorrow’s People: How the downturn will change the future of work
(PricewaterhouseCoopers 2009)

This new report looks at the impact of the global economic downturn on people management. It explores how the actions of businesses as a result of the crisis determine their readiness for the upturn and their ability to compete in the second decade. Read More

2009 Talent Shortage Survey Results
(Manpower 2009)

Manpower surveyed nearly 39,000 employers across 33 countries in the first quarter of 2009 to determine the extent to which talent shortages are impacting today’s labour markets. The results indicate that 30% of employers worldwide are having difficulty filling positions due to lack of suitable talent. Read More

The Global Talent Crunch: Why Employer Branding Matters Now
(Manpower 2009)

Despite the global recession and the weakest employment outlook in decades, employers are nonetheless facing a scarcity of talent in critical areas. By focusing now on building their employer brands and enhancing their appeal to talented workers with scarce and vital skills, organisations can position themselves to win lasting competitive advantage in the talent marketplace.
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Fully On-Board: Getting the Most from your Talent in the First Year
(Kevin Martin, Mollie Lombardi, Aberdeen Group 2009)

Engaging employees early in their career with a new company is essential to employee satisfaction, retention and performance. Data collected by Aberdeen in December 2008 and January 2009 from more than 60 HR talent management and line of business executives shows that onboarding is poised to make significant strategic gains again this year. Read More

Employee Engagement: A Literature Review
(Kingston Business School Working Paper Series no 19 Oct 2008)

Employee engagement has become a hot topic in recent years. However, there remains a lack of critical academic literature on the subject. This review examines peer-reviewed journal articles, working papers, textbooks and other published resources relevant to employee engagement. The review adds value to the current state of knowledge by critically evaluating the existing literature. It also addresses concerns about the lack of agreement on what engagement is and how the issues surrounding it can be addressed. Read More

What engages employees the most or, The Ten C’s of employee engagement
(Ivey Business Journal March/April 2006 Reprint # 9B06JB09)

Practitioners and academics have argued that an engaged workforce can create competitive advantage. The authors say that it is imperative for leaders to identify the level of engagement in their organisation and implement behavioural strategies that will facilitate full engagement. In clear terms they describe how leaders can do that. Read More

The Meaning of Employee Engagement
(Industrial and Organisational Psychology 1 2008 3-30)

The meaning of employee engagement is ambiguous among both academic researchers and practitioners. Drawing on diverse literature the paper offers a series of propositions about (a) psychological state engagement; (b) behavioural engagement; (c) trait engagement. The paper concludes with thoughts about the measurement of the 3 facets of engagement and potential antecedents, especially measurement via employee surveys. Read More

Building Leadership Bench Strength: Current Trends in
Succession Planning and Management
(Achieve Global Inc. 2009)

An organisation’s capability and capacity to deliver targeted results and sustain economic viability over the long term is highly dependent upon its focused planning and management in building, deploying and retaining critical leadership bench strength. Organisations that fail to identify and prepare current and future leaders are at high risk. Read More

Engaging Employees During a Financial Crisis
(Teamleaders 2008)

It’s an employer’s market once again. It seems as though the days of an ever-shrinking talent pool are over. As companies around the world retrench employees and freeze recruitment, the power pendulum is swinging back towards the employer. But.just because it’s harder for employees to resign doesn’t mean you can ignore engagement. And just because there’s a bigger pool of employees from which to choose your next candidate doesn’t mean you can drop your standards of management. In fact, the opposite is true. Employees may be more grateful for a job but poor management will lead to low productivity, damaging morale, plummeting sales, and poor customer service – at a crucial time when you need these benefits the most.
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Talent Management in a Down Economy
(Taleo Research White Paper 2008)

Talent management has risen to the forefront as a central issue for today’s organisations worldwide and established itself as a key business strategy in any economic season. Regardless of market conditions, companies need to hire and manage their talent to fill positions and manage performance. Even in recessionary times, history has shown that gross job creation does not significantly decrease. Successful talent management strategies deliver the twin benefits of lowered costs and increased productivity – which are especially welcome in a constrained business climate. Read More

Talentronics – Proving the Economic Value of Talent Management
(Dr John Sullivan 2009)

Definition of Talentronics: using economic, scientific and statistical approaches to clearly demonstrate the revenue impact of excellent talent management programs.

A superior talent management function can have a higher impact on company success than any other single business function, bar none. Despite the potential for large impact, the talent management function still suffers from relatively low corporate status because too many in the profession lack understanding of the most effective ways to “prove” revenue impact to senior executives. Read More

Creating a Compelling Employee Engagement Strategy
(John Asquith, TalentDrain 2008)
Ever wondered why HR’s budget is the first to get reviewed and cut when times are difficult? Or to put it another way, which budget holder is the only one sitting round the table without a compelling business case for their spend? Two recent surveys have highlighted HR’s lack of strategic firepower. A 2008 McKinsey survey found that 60% of senior manager’s see HR as “an administrative department, not a strategic business partner”, whilst TalentDrain’s most recent Australian Retention Survey, carried out with AHRI (www.talentdrain.com.au/research) confirmed that although 76% of organisations wish to reduce turnover, specific responsibilities for retention have only been allocated in 37% of these organisations. Read More

Strategies for the Intergenerational Workplace
(Kate Kirkpatrick, Steve Martin and Sandi Warneke 2008)
The fact that four distinct generations are at work adds further challenge to the workplace productivity equation. Veterans, Boomers, Generation X and Millenials are in the workforce side by side but not necessarily in sync. This research indicates that while the four generations bring drastically different influences and expectations to work, understanding the areas of common ground is what will allow employers to develop high performance workplace strategies. The answer isn’t a custom workplace for each group, but an integrated system of environment, tools and policies that bring out the best in every generation. Read More

Staying On: Employee Retention by Design
(The Leader CoreNet Global Magazine Sept/Oct 2007)
The pace of change in the 21st century global business environment is break-neck and many companies realize to stay competitive and profitable they must have a “ready-set-go” work force that can quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively change, size, shape and direction to meet whatever challenges may arise. Leading employers also recognize the need to create a work environment that will stimulate the intellectual growth of their collective work force, which is imperative for success in today’s knowledge economy. Read More

Multi-Generational Work Force Design: PricewaterhouseCoopers Opens a New Headquarters in Ireland
(The Leader CoreNet Global Magazine May/June 2008)
How do you effectively manage a workforce of diverse ages and expectations and how do you plan and build a workplace that plans for all ages? Different types of work require different workspaces and different ages respond differently to diverse environments. A workplace that is designed with the generations in mind can help facilitate the transfer of knowledge from older to younger workers. Read More

Towards an Environmental Psychology of Workspace: How People are affected by Environments for Work
(Architectural Science Review 2008)
Inquiry into how people experience environmental conditions at work is a growing area of study. Evidence from commercial leasing agents, office furniture manufacturers, the design professions and building contractors indicates that some new knowledge is finding its way into the real estate industry as commercial building owners and tenants demand better quality workspaces for their employees. Read More

Managing Demographic Risk
(Harvard Business Review Feb 2008)
An Ageing workforce will compel businesses to change how they operate and could even threaten some companies viability. How vulnerable is your business? Read More

SEEK 2007 Survey of Employee Satisfaction and Motivation in Australia
The 2007 SEEK Intelligence Survey of Employee Satisfaction and Motivation has collected responses from over 5000 employees in Australia about how they view their work. Read More

Generational Differences in Personality and Motivation: Do they exist and what are the implications for the workplace?
(Journal of Managerial Psychology 2008)
Building on Previous research into generational differences, this exploratory study examined whether differences in personality and motivational drivers truly exist in the workplace across different generations. Read More

Quality Public Service Workplaces – Information Paper 2 Attraction and Retention
(State of Queensland June 2006)
There is concern at national level about the prevalence and consistency of skills shortages being experienced in some occupational areas and much speculation concerning the prospect of longer term skill shortages due to the ageing of the workforce and the impact of rapid changes in technology and business processes. Read More

Be honest with potential employees
(John Asquith, TalentDrain)
False expectations, at the recruitment stage, are a key cause of early attrition, claims John Asquith. An honest debate around the 12 factors of employee commitment can increase the ‘likelihood of engagement’. Read More

How to make their first day a good one
(Tara Craig, Personnel Today)
Few of us are immune to first day nerves and finding that your new employers aren't ready for you just makes things worse. However keen the new employee may be to get stuck in, much of their first day will be spent with the HR department. And, for HR, getting it right is crucial. Read More

Exit Data: Why do staff really leave
(Jo Faragher, Personnel Today)
The results of an exclusive survey have revealed that people's real reasons for leaving a job are quite different to why human resources thinks they go. So why doesn't HR compile useful exit data? Read More

Going Concerns
(Tracey Evans)
This article is based on the AHRI HR Pulse survey carried out in conjunction with TalentDrain in December 2007. Australian employers are losing an extra $20 billion per year as staff turnover increases dramatically. This increase is putting people management practices under pressure and having an impact on organisations’ effectiveness and the bottom line. Read More

The Economics of Retention
(The Performance Improvement Council)
Improving economic conditions, an impending skilled labour shortage, and the proven link between low turnover and profitability are forcing organizations to take a new look at employee retention. Sound retention strategies not only head off a future problem they can save money and improve current business performance. Read More

What Keeps Employees Engaged with their Workplace
(Serge Sardo)
The Australian Institute of Management undertook a comprehensive national study in September and October 2006 to determine the main factors that influence an employee’s decision to leave or stay with a company, the average length of service and if employee engagement is influenced by company, individual or management related issues. This white paper is a comprehensive account of the results from the AIM. Read More

How to use your workplace brand as an attraction and retention tool
(Penny Burke)
A recent survey of 1,000 CEO's in Australia asked you to list your major concerns for the immediate future. Right up near the top was attraction and retention of the best talent. From my extensive research, particularly amongst the infamous Gen Y, I think you are right to be worried. Despite the ongoing debate of whether or not Australia is in the midst of a skills shortage, there is enough evidence to suggest that the labour market is changing globally, and the impact on the future workplace will be considerable. Read More

Key skills retention and motivation: the war for talent still rages and retention is the high ground
(Clayton Glen)
The paper sets out to examine effective, practical and holistic people strategies that address key skills retention, employee motivation and attendance gaps, with a view to positively impacting on organisation costs, productivity and business performance. The paper also seeks to examine the value of assessment and feedback in talent engagement and retention, and to look at developing employees via experience-based development initiatives. Read More

An exploration of the relationship between learning organisations and the retention of knowledge workers.
(Liz Kelley, Deborah A Blackman, Jeffery Peter Hurst)
The purpose of this study is to demonstrate a relationship between learning organisation theory and the potential to retain knowledge workers. It emphasises that human resource (HR) managers must recognise specific relationships between learning organisation elements, job satisfaction facets and turnover intent as they emerge for their knowledge workers. Read More

HR in Focus
Microsoft's HR Director gives the big picture plus The Talent Shortage.... how to cope...
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