The secret to winning the "War for Talent" - Understanding High-performance employee retention experience of the small and mediumsized company in Ireland in a scarce talent Market.

Abstract

Studies in HRM have mentioned that many SMEs are not using their performance management systems productively to retain and develop high-performance talented employees strategically. Moreover, studies in the USA, predicted that the make-orbreak for firms in the next two decades would be the ability to attract, develop, and retain talent. The review of the available literature allowed the development of an original conceptual framework to inform my approach to primary research. This study also demonstrated, The secret to winning the "War for Talent". I proposed an original framework to analyze the hypothesis of retaining high-performance employees strategically as the key to improving the effectiveness of organizations and their employees, hence winning the "War for Talent" in the scarce Irish labor market. The data collected on the face-to-face interview using mixed-methods implied that the high-performance retention practice in SME is usual, once that 75% ( 3 from 4) of companies analyzed in this study had enough talent to drive the business in a short and long -run. The findings also showed circumstantial evidence that high-performance employees working in key functions can inspire subordinates impacting positively the company and teams performance, making the SME achieve goals sustainable and balanced of talents. The findings also suggest that retention of high-performance employees is more efficient when the SME companies had a differentiated approach to treats highperformance employees, offering a package of benefits and high wages. These effects on the special treat and high-performance retention could be argued are casually ambiguous in their link to a sustainable competitive advantage for SMEs. I have therefore concluded additional research is needed to establish this link. For future research, I also suggest that the aim is to show how SMEs monetary benefits when increasing the Human Capital Value Added (HCVA ) retaining high-performance employees in their talent pool.