AAMA : Blogs : Book Review: Attract, Engage & Retain Top Talent. 50 Plus One Strategies Used by the Best

Book: Donna De St. Aubin and Brian J. Carlsen (2008). Attract, Engage & Retain Top Talent. 50 Plus One Strategies Used by the Best. Bloomington, IN. AuthorHouse. ISBN: 978-1-4389-2409-0 (sc)

Reviewer: Capt Marc A. Rittberg, MSC, CAAMA

The book Attract, Engage & Retain Top Talent. 50 Plus One Strategies Used by the Best, captures various aspects of hiring or promoting the right employee for the right job; and growing that employee into a strong corporate asset. The book also looks at the company or business in depth, and how it relates to the employees and consumers. Certain areas such as internal and external branding are looked at in order to see what it is that management wants the employees to envision, and then focusing externally on how the company or business is viewed by the consumer or end user.

The most important take away was that your employees are your company brand, from first encounter until after the business transaction has taken place. The position description processes, as well as various hiring practices, were looked at. The various tiers of online applications, ranging from the generic with little or no corporate information to the well tailored application involving a small questionnaire and information about corporate policy and health benefits were reviewed.

The rewards programs were also described in depth. These ranged from very informal to very formal approaches in order to recognize the hard work that our employees demonstrate within the workplace. The main point that was reemphasized was that employees don’t necessarily need monetary awards, but they do need to be told that they are doing a good job when appropriate. The feedback system is a great way to examine how open and continuous communication can strengthen both the employee and employer. Employees need quality feedbacks in order to make sure they are performing up to expectation, as well as feel confident they are doing what is actually required of them. The strategic workforce model was reviewed in depth along with the staffing plan. These two tools are valuable in determining where your current manpower is and what it will take to ensure continued success in the future.

The need for unavailable resources was described in the gap analysis process. Certain key factors were looked at, such as an aging workforce, a workforce that is more technology based and the competition to attract and retain these employees. It is also important to understand the functional fit as well as the career culture fit. The functional fit ensures the employee can properly complete the tasks that are desired. The career culture fit is that certain fit that ensures the employee fits in with the other employee and fits in with the company’s policies, vision and mission.

The book also covers the Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis in order to see where the company can excel or fix problems in order to grow into new areas. It was interesting how the book pointed out that conducting a SWOT analysis could indicate where a company can capitalize on another company’s weakness. Other areas such as the hiring process, interview process and recruiting were covered.

The book strongly focused on the steps used in conducting an interview properly; such as what to say, what not to say, proper location and essential elements of the interview. Recruiting costs were covered, revealing that recruiting can be quite costly, especially if the wrong candidate is hired and needs to be replaced. This would lead to lost revenue in training, customer encounters, etc. A well defined company can recruit heavily on its reputation, merits and employee satisfaction.

A great portion of the book also focuses on training and developing the employees. Training and developing the employees is a win-win for both the employees and the company. The company will reap the benefits of the employee’s new found knowledge. The employees will benefit because he or she is making more of an impact within the company, leading to a higher level of self fulfillment. That last point was essential in getting the employees engaged and taking ownership in how the company is performing. That will also, according to the book, lead into a succession leadership plan. This is a useful tool in order to plan for the leadership of the company as time goes on and the management is replaced.

This book was written extremely well and took a hard look at an organization from three angles, to include the leadership, the employees and the customer. There are far too many points in this book to list them all. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in correcting issues within their company or organization; or to anyone who wants to strengthen their company or organization.