With a talent shortage looming on the horizon, it makes sense for managers to implement employee retention plans now so they can keep their top performers in the future.

Managers may be tempted to dismiss employee retention as "tomorrow's problem" and "stick with "replacement strategies" so long as replacing departed employees is relatively easy. While this may be true today, soon there will be more jobs than talented people to fill them, and this will endure as the new status quo for years to come.

Here are four reasons why organizations have to start adapting now to this new reality:

1. The early bird catches the worm.

The worker shortfall will hit everybody at the same time. If you haven't done anything to prepare for it, you'll soon be washed away by your competitors once the wave of retiring baby-boomers guts the workplace. There's only so much top talent to go around and the best performers will have choices like never before as to where they go to work.

Granted, we're generally not motivated to deal with "tomorrow's problems" until we've successfully overcome the ones we're facing. But employee retention and engagement issues are fast approaching, and it's only a matter of time before good organizations are scrambling to scoop up whatever scarce talent they can find for their firms.

2. Your best offence is a good defense.

A global study of senior executives by Accenture revealed that "attracting and retaining skilled staff" was their highest priority in 2005. With early warnings of an impending talent war, you can be sure that things won't be too different in 2006, and these same senior executives and managers will be coveting the top performers at your firm to shore up their own ranks.

Accordingly, you have to implement an employee retention strategy now that keeps your key employees fully engaged with their work. Protective walls must be figuratively built around these top performers, to reduce the likelihood that they'll be lured away by another firm.

3. Showing more money is not the answer.

While employee retention starts at home with the top performers you already have, another element to your retention strategy involves bringing new talent on board. Some companies assume there's an obvious link between retention and compensation, but this isn't the case. Money isn't a good way to keep top employees engaged with their work, and it's not good way to attract people to your workplace either. When recruiting top talent to your firm, you want to make sure you're chasing after the employee who's chasing after an engaging work experience, and not just after the money.

Remember, top performers assume that they can make the same salary anywhere they go, so they're looking beyond their paycheques for the "value-added propositions" of their new or current positions. Career management assistance and flexible work arrangements are two good ways to keep employees engaged with their work because they demonstrate a manager's interest in what employees think, feel and require.

4. An engaged mindset takes time to develop.

Even with a good retention strategy the reality is employees will leave your firm. Nevertheless, it's important to be proactive to their potential resignation, and not simply reactive. An engaged employee mindset includes the belief that there isn't a better employment opportunity that exists elsewhere.

But it's less that an engaged mindset takes time to develop and more that a disengaged mindset is difficult to change. Employees tend to come into a company ready and eager to engage with their workplace. Therefore, employees must be kept attracted to, committed to and fascinated with their work. This mindset takes time to develop, insofar as there has to be consistency to the way in which employees are treated by their managers. If you start pulling out all the stops once you're caught in the throes of a talent war, employees will see right through your stopgap measures and won't balk at leaving your firm for a more engaging work experience.

The writing is on the wall about employee retention and engagement. Organizations that heed the immediate need for employee retention strategies are less likely to lose their top performers, while those who wait will soon be scrambling for a non-existent foothold in the hiring market. While employee retention may very well be "tomorrow's problem," this shouldn't dissuade firms from dealing with it today.

Dr. Tim Rutledge, Partner, Retention Services, is a veteran Human Resources Development practitioner with a background in financial services, manufacturing and health care. For more information about Tim Rutledge, and IQ Partners please visit their website at www.iqpartners.com.