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Talent Trade Tidbit - Retention Strategies

Published on: 17th July, 2025

A RECRUITER giving advice for RETENTION?! What?! Turns out that, in a sneaky way, demand for key talent retention is actually a key strategy in recruiting...

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Transcript
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Hi, I'm Stephanie Maas, partner with Thinking Ahead Search Firm.

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Today I wanna talk to you about one of my favorite subjects, but probably one of the most unsuspecting subjects coming from a recruiter.

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And that's the topic of retention.

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One of the things that happens in a normal healthy economy is there's a normal healthy amount of turnover.

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If things get crazy good, we see the turnover, believe it or not, go up if things get crazy bad.

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Same thing.

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We see the turnover rise, which is also a bad thing.

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Where do you think we are right now?

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The reality is good candidates have multiple options.

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Now go on LinkedIn for five minutes.

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I guarantee you, you scroll down, you'll find at least three or four articles about why people leave and they, they leave cultures, they leave leaders, they leave, blah, blah, blah, blah.

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They don't not appreciate it.

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There's all kinds of reasons.

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Fundamentally, there's about five or six, but there's all kinds of reasons why people leave.

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And the fact is, some turnover is natural.

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And warranted.

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It keeps an organization healthy.

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For some of us, losing key top people is an absolute kick in the pants.

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So let me encourage you to do this.

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If you are in any position of authority within an organization, first and foremost, identify your key people.

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That's the first thing we've gotta do is, Hey, let's stop, pause, let's look around and really say, Hey.

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Who are our key people and why?

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Sometimes it's our revenue generators, obviously.

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Let's face it, we need revenue.

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Sometimes it's the group of folks that really act like the group.

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They keep everybody together.

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They may not be a revenue generator, but they keep everything working behind the scenes so the revenue generators can go generate revenue.

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For some, it might be something different, something strategic or operational.

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But you first and foremost gotta know who those folks are.

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The second thing is in every single leadership meeting you have to be having conversation around retention.

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What is our retention strategy?

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What tools can we start today to either get, implement, whatever the case may be, to keep our key people engaged?

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If you don't do this.

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I guarantee you there are three or four other of your competitors out there that are reaching out.

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Sometimes they're using search firms, sometimes they're coming direct, but they are absolutely calling on your people promising those retention strategies.

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I. Again, I know it's a little bit different topic coming from a recruiter, but in today's environment, demand for key talent retention is actually a key strategy in recruiting.

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About the Podcast

The Talent Trade
Presented by ThinkingAhead Executive Search
The Talent Trade is all about finding the right person, for the right opportunity, at the right time. But how exactly do you do that the "right" way? Executive Search Partner and Top Biller Stephanie Maas shares more than 25 years of experience about what it takes to be a top recruiter in today's "talent trade" market, using ThinkingAhead’s four-prong system focused on recruiting, business development, planning, and managing your mindset. It’s real, honest information about how to build your desk, perfect your niche, and stand out among the crowd in your search career.



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