Retaining talents: Impact on innovation

Abstract

Companies´ competitiveness is crucial for their sustainability in the medium and long term. Much of their performance depends on their Human Resources, valuable strategic asset with relevant role in transforming inputs into fruitful outputs. Competitiveness is reached throughout investment in R&D and other intangibles and companies innovate when are able to improve the interaction quality between tacit and explicit knowledge in its core, embracing not only technological but also organizational aspects. This means that innovation depends less on physical assets and more on intangible assets. In a world of change, companies need Human Resources able to adapt to environment and its competitiveness depends on its ability to have talented workers. The biggest challenge of Human Resource Managers is precisely be able to Attract, Retain and Develop Talent. Companies that do a better Talents Management are those that have better results in terms of innovation. This study intends to understand the importance of Talent Retention in organization's success as well as what attracts Talents to companies, what holds them back, what is valued and what can drive them out of the company. As a methodology It has been applied a quantitative research and the Manpower Group employees in Portugal were the studied population.The study concludes that the power that sustainable companies have in attracting and retaining their Talent will depend on the mechanisms they are able to create to maintain and retain them, proactively acting on their attraction and avoiding voluntary departure. Companies must act on the dimensions of Employer Branding, Recruitment and Selection. They must be attentive to the economic and social environment and develop policies of retention, namely as linked with compensation and benefits, Leadership style, Performance Management, Career Management, Training and Development, Climate and Organizational Culture, Organizational Communication and Working Conditions. Finally, about voluntary departure, companies must understand the reasons why employees abandon them, so that they can continuously improve this system.