The Best Retention Strategy

A friend was telling us at dinner about her manager, who’s been gathering job descriptions from other companies to identify skill gaps and shape her development plan.

The table went quiet.

Not because this seemed weird, but because none of us had experienced that kind of explicit, market-aware development conversation. We’d all done that work ourselves, mostly on our own.

Here’s what struck me: Her manager is actively preparing her to be hireable elsewhere. And precisely because of that, my friend has no intention of leaving.

The best retention strategy isn’t holding on to people. It’s investing in them so fully they could leave and still choose not to.

Originally published on LinkedIn