Date:

Dear Management Team,

How do you react when one of your valued employees or team members stops you to say, “As soon as you have a chance, can I get a few minutes of your time?” Does your stomach twist in to a knot as you think, “What am I going to do if he wants to tell me he’s leaving?” And what about those people on your team that have always produced … are they still producing as they have in the past? Are they still loyal and committed to you and the organization? Are they still engaged in our business? We have found a way to help you reduce the resignation notice potential and some practical ways you can implement to keep your staff loyal, committed and engaged members on your team.

We are experiencing first hand, with the rest of corporate America, that one of the major barriers to building effective organizations is the loss of momentum and intellectual capital when talented employees leave. This is true in a strong or weak economy, with high or low unemployment rates. What is becoming more predominant in today’s economy is that people don’t always leave. Instead, they may check out emotionally -- they disengage. There are two ways good people leave today: some leave physically, as in out the door, or they leave psychologically, as in quit and stay. For both types of departures, we experience productivity losses, decreased customer service levels, and ultimately, profitability.

Despite the sagging economy, we cannot ignore the fact that we will have a labor shortage – that is not going away. Alan Greenspan once said there are simply not enough people to feed the economic machine. What will happen as the market shifts, the economy strengthens and choices become available again? Our employees with any critical skills will be able to find abundant opportunities for employment. As the knowledge-based economy grows, our employees are THE competitive resource. And, as replacement costs continue to rise as high as 200% of an employee’s salary, it is also vital to our continued success to retain our employees. To remain competitive, we must build a culture that engages and retains talent and have elevated talent management to a top priority.

(INSERT COMPANY SPECIFIC BUSINESS CASE INFORMATION… WHY ARE WE IMPLEMENTING RETENTION WORKSHOPS, WHAT ARE OUR STRATEGIC GOALS, ETC.)

(Leadership Letter – January 22, 2003) Page 1 * * * * S A M P L E * * * *

Recognizing we have to retain talent once we recruit them, we asked our new hires “What Matter’s Most?” Outlined below are their top five answers ranked according to frequency mentioned:

What Matters Most? … It Matters that You …

. Encourage me to expand my skill set . Support my need for work/life balance . Discuss a variety of career goals with me . Direct me towards several new opportunities . Work to improve your own managerial skills

To assist you in addressing such issues and improve your chances to engage and retain not just your new hires or high potentials, but everyone who reports to you, we are pleased to be offering a new program entitled:

“Love ‘Em or Lose ‘Em: Building Loyalty and Commitment in the Workplace”

Date: Time: Location:

What is the Engagement & Retention Workshop for Managers?

. This session is aimed at developing, engaging and retaining all talent (high potentials, stars and solid citizens), as well as facilitating meaningful, realistic engagement and retention discussions between our managers and their employees. . The Manager’s Engagement & Retention Workshop assists managers, supervisors and team leaders in learning the skills and behaviors you can use every day to engage, retain and develop the organization’s strongest competitive asset – its talent. . The workshop provides you with easy-to-use tips and action steps to assist you in motivating and retaining your employees in our competitive market. . This program will supplement our (Insert corporate specific initiatives, leadership programs or other training). . The workshop will help you to recognize and quantify the negative effect of our employee turnover as it relates to our performance and profitability. . The workshop will help you recognize the importance of your relationship with employees – how it is key to their decisions about staying or leaving; and how it affects the level of effort, or discretionary effort, they’re willing to exert in doing their work.

(Leadership Letter – January 22, 2003) Page 2 The (half- or full-) Day Workshop will help YOU …

. Identify talent challenges within your department and organization . Identify members of your team who may be at risk . Recognize the cost of losing our talent, physically and psychologically . Develop skills and behaviors needed to engage and retain employees . Create individual engagement and retention plans for all of your employees . Create an engagement and retention plan for yourself . Prepare for engagement and retention discussions with your employees and your boss

Additional Materials You’ll Receive:

In addition to the Love’Em participant workbook, you’ll receive:

 The best-selling book, “Love ‘Em or Lose ‘Em: Getting Good People to Stay”  “Engagement Planner” to capture your workshop learnings and to use to build engagement and retention plans for both you and your employees  “Retention Focused Manager” survey packages, a participative feedback instrument that will be used as pre-work for this workshop  “Invest in Your Values”, a tool to uncover personal values  “Retention Deficit Disorder” identifies high-risk behaviors that can cause talent loss  “Retention Card Sort” with 12 activities to use the cards back at work

How Do I Register?

Class size will be limited so we encourage you to register early for what we believe will be a very helpful and popular workshop that will directly address our talent initiatives.

(Enter your department-specific registration process here)

Please feel free to contact (Name) at (Number) for further clarification or specifics regarding our talent initiatives. You may also want to browse through up-to-date talent statistics and see what the experts are saying about the criticality of talent management today (www.keepem.com)

Sincerely,

(Name)

(Leadership Letter – January 22, 2003) Page 3