The Leadership in Action Series: On Selecting, Developing, and Managing Talent

A Retention Strategy for the Ages

Karen Bryson and Karissa McKenna

Leaders who think that the current employment climate means the job of keeping key talent can be put on the back burner might want to think again. Demographics show that retention will become increasingly critical and challenging in the years ahead. Knowing what baby boomers and Generation Xers need and want in the workplace can provide an advantage in the battle for talent.

It is human nature to categorize and place labels on groups of people, and nowhere is this truer than in comparisons of and relations between generations. To take just one example, it seems that every generation admonishes the one that follows with the old line, “When I was growing up …,” and is dismissed ...