Retaining talent

Retaining top talent is a constant challenge. It is tempting to think that compensation is the lever that matters the most, and while it plays a role, it is rarely the reason someone chooses to stay over the long term. The people you most want to retain are driven by stretch opportunities, by visibility inside the company, and by purpose. Balancing those at scale is complex and often counterintuitive.

In my own leadership journey, I have found that top performers need to be stretched in ways that really challenge them, but not to the point of burnout. Stretch does not mean adding more tasks to someone’s plate. It means creating opportunities to work on the hardest and most meaningful problems in the organisation. For me, that often meant assigning ownership of critical product launches or asking an engineer to lead the design of a new product capability that the business was betting on. These were not assignments given lightly, but statements of belief in that person’s ability to deliver. Done right, they create momentum in a career and build loyalty in a way no bonus scheme ever could. Done poorly, when support is missing or the environment is hostile to failure, they quickly drive people out of the organisation.

Visibility is equally important. The higher up an organisation grows, the easier it is for individual contributions to get lost in the noise. I have seen brilliant engineers deliver solutions that enabled millions of customers, only for them to feel invisible because nobody connected their effort to the wider business outcome. I try to make a habit of closing that loop wherever I can. That might mean bringing customer feedback directly to the team that solved a scaling challenge, or showing how their work enabled a measurable revenue impact. It may feel small in the moment, but it is these moments that remind people that their work matters and that the organisation sees them and the value they are bringing.

Purpose and progression are the long arc of retention. People do not stay in roles purely for perks or even for high salaries. They stay when they believe in the mission and when they can see a future for themselves within it. Purpose cannot be a one-off exercise in storytelling at an all hands. It has to be reinforced and lived through the decisions leaders make, especially when those decisions are hard. Progression is just as nuanced. Not everyone wants to move into management. Some want to pursue deep technical paths. Others want breadth. The mistake I see too often is treating progression as a single ladder when in reality it should be a lattice of opportunities. Making those paths clear and moving people along them before they start to look elsewhere has been one of the most effective ways I have personally kept people engaged.

The missteps are familiar. Assuming top talent is “fine” and requires less of your attention. Believing that busyness is the same as being stretched. Confusing retention with the size of compensation packages. None of those neccessarily build lasting loyalty.

In the end, retaining talent is not about reacting to attrition. It is about creating an environment where your best people feel challenged in the right ways, where they can see the impact of their work, and where they believe in the mission enough to invest their future in it. Compensation opens the door, but it is stretch, visibility, and purpose that keep people walking through it year after year.