During these remarkably competitive times, it is even more critical to retain top talent in your organization. Here are a few ways in which to reduce the odds of having your employees leave for "greener pastures."

1. Communicate

Employees are intelligent and perceptive - treat them as such. They know when you are holding things back and are quite capable of reading between the lines. Communicate, as much as you can as often as you can, openly and honestly (i.e. staff meetings, company meetings, one-on-ones, task forces, etc.). Even when you feel that you have communicated often enough and more than enough, double it. If you are not able to disclose certain information, tell your employees that you aren't able to and why. Communicate company news, performance, goals, objectives, missions, and visions. Communicate personal goals, objectives, performance and information that may affect their jobs. Employees cannot perform effectively until they have a clear understanding of where they stand, where they need to go and how they fit into the big picture. A lack of this can lead to frustration, poor performance and dissatisfaction.

2. Reward and Recognition

Employees need to feel valued and appreciated on a consistent basis. Reward employees fairly, consistently, equitably and visibly. Use creative methods other than base compensation (i.e. stock, cash incentives, "Dinners for Two," gift certificates, extra time off, tickets, celebrations, etc.). Find out what they enjoy and personalize the reward.

3. Develop

Facilitate the learning and development process. Employees want to improve their skills, feel challenged, stretch, grow, develop their talent and remain competitive. Invest in your employees and the company will profit. Many companies today depend on their knowledge base for success.

4. Coach/Mentor

Coaching and mentoring are perfect forms of on-the-job training and just-in-time performance improvement. Believe in your employees and challenge them to greatness. It gives employees the edge they need to succeed.

5. Pay Attention

Keep in touch with your employees. Treat them as important resources for success. Listen, intuit and observe. Find out how you can be a better resource, advocate, success partner, coach and manager. Learn what motivates, drives and inspires your employees. Be proactive and anticipate needs, challenges, potential issues and opportunities as best you can. Don't let an employee's dissatisfaction or resignation letter be a surprise - by then it is often too late to salvage the situation.

6. Empower

Provide employees with trust, accountability and responsibility. Treat employees as adults, not children who need to be controlled, disciplined and constrained. Give them the room to stretch, achieve and thrive. Create a fear-free environment where employees are encouraged to take risks. Encourage creativity.

7. Tools

Provide the tools necessary to improve productivity and enable success. Employees often feel frustrated when their performance is limited by a lack of tools.

8. Great Technology

Employees in technical positions, especially, are drawn to and engaged by working on technology that they consider "hot" and "sexy."

9. Competitive Benefit and Compensation Programs

Invest the time and resources to ensure that your benefits and compensation packages are more than competitive. Don't lose your employees to other companies by not providing more than the bare necessities. Other companies will be happy to oblige. Also, the less employees have to worry about what happens outside of work, the more they can focus on their jobs. Don't forget to continually communicate these programs, the philosophies behind them and how they compare to the market.

10. Leadership

Motivate, inspire, empower, guide and direct. Lead by example, live with integrity, practice what you preach and "walk the talk." Create a unique, positive, supportive, successful, effective, fun and exciting culture. Foster teamwork and empower your staff. Be a positive role model. Take action and take risks. Work towards high quality and continuous improvement. Confront the status quo and embrace change. Communicate and interact often with employees at all levels of the organization. Encourage feedback and new ideas. Strong leadership gives your employees strong reason to remain loyal and dedicated and to follow you down the path to success.

This piece was originally submitted by Shawn Hewitt, Professional Coach, who can be reached at shawnhewitt@turning-pnt.com or visited on the web. Shawn Hewitt wants you to know: I am a former human resources director who specializes in corporate employee, manager and executive personal and professional coaching, as well as private individual personal and career oriented coaching.