Recognise This! – Many employees are poised like elite runners, ready to sprint out the door at the first opportunity. And those opportunities are coming fast.

You’ve successfully recruited perfect employees. You’ve onboarded them well. Now how do you retain them?

Always a concern for HR Pros, it’s now the top concern for CEOs around the world, according to PwC’s 14th Annual CEO Survey, especially as recruiting picks up for top talent in sectors where it’s hard to find employees with the right skill set.

For some, you must overcome situations where you’ve made it easy for employees to leave you, such as these 7 signs your employees are poachable. Others are better positioned to create loyal employees.

How do you create employees who are loyal to more than “I’m glad I have a job” – ones who will not only stick around, but give their best discretionary effort every day? Is “employee loyalty” a myth in today’s workplace – especially after decades of corporate actions have proven to employees that companies are not loyal to them as their parents from the Traditionalist generation had experienced?

I think employers must become comfortable with a new definition of workplace loyalty:

1) As long as I’m here, you’ll get the best of me. – Savvy employees know and understand the volatility of the job market. It’s the responsibility of the employer to make sure they are creating an environment in which employees want to fully engage and give the best of themselves every day.

2) When I leave, I won’t go to a competitor. – Employers must also realise employees have options, too. So employers must create such a bond with employees that, should the employee leave for whatever reason, they will not take their knowledge and skills to your competitors.

Where do you find yourself today? Are you a loyal employee? Or are you poachable? Why?