concept of retention team at the work-place

In hot job markets similar to that of the current job market, some employers definitely need to have this concept of retention team at their workplace. This is similar to the US telecom service providers and/or financial service providers providing incentives for customers to stick out with them.

From my limited exposure, I can say - some of the Indian software service providers, some of the US consulting firms, etc need to have this concept.

Recently, an acquaintance of mine, who has abt 2 yrs SAP experience with Accenture, decided to look out. To his delight, Deloitte offered him a grand package. Also, Deloitte sponsors MBA if you were with them for 2 yrs and promise to stay for 2 yrs after MBA. Thus, it was a no-brainer for him.

He was called by HR from Accenture telling him that he is getting an out-of-turn bonus and other incentives. However, the total package that they planned to offer him was lower than what Deloitte could offer him - so, it was a no-brainer for him. Besides, MBA education funding is another lucrative attraction for him.

Jack and Suzanne Welch expressed concern in their podcast and article on Brain Drain. Private Equity firms or PE are poaching away the talent from the regular companies either directly or by competing on campuses with extremely high pay packages. They suggest a retention approach of having a separate track (or as they call it promotion slope) for such achievers who can be identified earlier in their careers. For this reason, middle to senior managers must know their teams well. This forces them to be detail-oriented as they will have to sit with their HR managers to see what William F. Pounds, CMU alumnus and current Dean @ MIT, says "Net Flow of Talent". This will require use of sophisticated skills such as data-mining in order to have a slight edge over others who run the show on an ad-hoc basis.

I feel that this has to be done by the executive team and not by the middle managers. Middle managers who had to climb the ladder rung-by-rung may have counter-productive emotions involved in the process of giving some other newcomer a faster track than what they had.

I hope the concept of retention team evolves further.