Talent Shortage: Attracting and Retaining Talent - Essay Example

This soft approach encompasses the strategy that employer branding tries to project. Being an employer of choice for future employees is to a large extent dependent on the existing employees. Ultimately, it is the corporate culture that reflects the image of the company. Research has also revealed that there is not any single factor that could reduce attrition and increase retention or attract the right talent. It is a combination of various factors like pay scales, technology used, motivation and interpersonal relationships, to name a few.

It is expected that this research, which highlights under one umbrella the reasons why employees change jobs, would give direction to organizations to bring about change in areas where they lack. Human capital is an important component of the intellectual construct because it is these human resources acting as a team that produce the goods or services which must satisfy a clientele and provide an economic justification for the existence of an organisation. In an era of knowledge based economy specialised skills can take years to perfect and hence it becomes necessary for organisations to retain and sustain competitive advantage, with employees facing relentless pressures to maintain their marketable skills and to provide for their necessities as well as for a dignified retirement income while the nation states are under pressure to reduce their social security budgets (Gerges & Sonander, 2004).

The grooming and training of employees with a strategic future view in mind can now have a significant impact on organisations. Thus, the employer / employee contract must be such that it offers both the employer and the employee something useful and meaningful, while providing both the parties with a capacity to continue to grow in the future. Employee performance can often no longer be judged on the basis of adequately performing required tasks during fixed