The previous post was loosely organized around original thought, training, and effective communications. Gerry Grispin has a bag full of original thoughts. In his Of Job Jars and Hi-Pot, he shares his experience of engaging a group of recruiters into a discussion of metrics, dashboards, and retention. They came up with several thoughts on retaining hi-performance employees including sponsoring joint projects (synergy between departments) and engaging hi-performance employees in short-term projects outside their particular expertise. The latter plan does double duty: it improves the agility of the firm (cross-training) and provides personal employee development.

Sure, lots of firms have hashed over similar ideas for retention, but I don't think anyone has ever been able to pull together a room full of staffing strategist from competing firm and come up with a focused plan of action. That is an original thought. Thanks Gerry.