Competing for Talent: Key Recruitment and Retention Strategies for Becoming an Employer of Choice (Hardcover)

by Nancy S. Ahlrichs (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Competing For Talent, by human-resources consultant Nancy Ahlrichs, is a solid and accessible resource for anyone who recognizes that "people (not technology or products) are the key to organizational success, innovation, and profitability." Ahlrichs advocates becoming an Employer of Choice, or EOC, which charts "new strategic directions that put people in the profit equation." Although there is no one-size-fits-all approach to recruiting and retention, she outlines some of the tools and techniques already in use by others along with her own advice for embracing them. A lengthy Introduction examines profitability in a tight hiring market, and offers ways to document turnover costs and uncover its causes. Part One explores the tactics used by some successful EOCs, and presents specific ways to adapt them. Part Two focuses on recruiting, examining the processes and technologies involved as well as some underutilized sources for quality candidates. Part Three looks at retention, laying out tactics for lowering turnover that range from improving compensation and benefits to total cultural rehabilitation. A final section offers information specific to "information technology brainpower." --Howard Rothman

Review
Ahlrichs offers specific observations and advice gleaned from more than 20 years of human resources and management consulting. -- Indiana Business Magazine, October 2000

Becoming an EOC is a deliberate business strategy...the author delineates comprehensive strategies for retaining top performers. -- Clinical Leadership & Management Review, Sept-Oct. 2001

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 592 pages
• Publisher: Davies-Black Publishing (November 25, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891061487
• ISBN-13: 978-0891061489
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #169,778 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important New Book!, November 3, 2000

By	Kristi Sherman (Fairbanks, Alaska) - See all my reviews

Competing for talent should be required reading for anyone interested in learning new approaches for hiring qualified employees in today's very competitive work environment. I work for a state university system that has restrictive limits on what we can pay. Competing for Talent provided me with useful real world solutions to attracting and retaining qualified employees. This book had a positive and immediate impact on our hiring success.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive, Well-Organized, Informative, December 20, 2001

By	Roger E. Herman (Greensboro, NC USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Employers are continually concerned about competing with each other to hire and hold the best employees they can find. Sometimes this competition becomes a frenzy, since the best people-qualified, experienced-are in high demand. It's essential, to compete well, to become an Employer of Choice. Ahlrichs, in her preface, observes that employers of choice "know that their 'choice' status is a significant achievement attained through consistent application of comprehensive strategies and tactics, as well as top-bottom organizational responsibility for retention.

This book is divided into three important sections: the big picture, recruiting, and retention. In Part One, How Employers of Choice are Winning the Talent Wars, the three chapters focus on Learning from Employers of Choice, Employer of Choice Foundation Strategies, and Building and Communicating a Top Employer Reputation. These writings present a good overview and insight into how Employers of Choice are operating. The orientation is to understand what these companies are doing, rather than a how-to approach. There is a lot to learn here.

The second part, Creative Strategies for Recruiting Top Talent, offers the readers four chapters, starting with How Employers of Choice are Redesigning Recruitment. The next chapter, Only You Will Do, has a little more instructional tone, but still primarily takes a third person view. This chapter concludes with a helpful Orientation Checklist. Chapter 6, Surfing for Recruiting Results Online does provide a healthy amount of how-to. While this field is changing almost daily, there is a lot of value here for the reader. Plenty of website domains are included. The last chapter in this section, Finding New Hires in Unlikely Places, is filled with good ideas. Here I felt a lot more of the how-to I was looking for.

The third section is entitled Comprehensive Strategies for Retaining Top Performers. Here the chapters are titled Understanding Why Employees Leave; Managing and Leading for Retention; Retrain, Develop, and Profit; and New Compensation and Benefits Strategies. There is a lot of value in these chapters-lots of ideas and perspectives. An exit interview guide will be helpful to those companies that have not taken advantage of this tool. The author seems to really hit her stride in providing ideas for readers in this section. The same holds for her conclusion, Becoming an Employer of Choice.

The book is well-written, filled with valuable information for the reader. The solid chapters are supplemented with a good resource guide and an index. I'd recommend this book for company owners, senior executives, and human resource professionals. As an ethical reviewer, I must share with you that I am co-author of "How to Become an Employer of Choice," a competing title in the same field. With that perspective, I would be quite comfortable recommending my clients read "Competing for Talent" as a supplement to my book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A handbook on the retention of your most valuable asset, December 1, 2000

By	Nancy Summers (Indiana) - See all my reviews

An easily understood, quickly assimilated read. I read the entire 200-page book at one sitting, and shared ideas with the co-owners of my company right away. Usually, business management textbooks are full of jargon. Competing for talent is in plain english, and can be applied immediately.