Nothing gives candidates a better idea of your workplace than a quick travel around of your office or facilities. It's one thing to tell a candidate that they'll be using high-tech bits and pieces. It's quite to show them the desk where they might sit, and the actual machine they'll be using. Once you show them, you're engaging their imagination. They can begin to portrait themselves at the job. After they go home, they'll have visual memories of the benefits of working for you. Chances are good they'll remember the whole lot you show them. They may not remember everything you tell them.

Recent research identified the following factors that employees consider deem necessary

to be content at work. Explain how you're going to help employees develop ? and then follow through. Don't make training an afterthought. It has to be competitive, but employees also want to understand how it works. For instance, if a sales program has certain incentives; staffers want to understand the formulas managers use to arrive at those incentives. If it's a promotion they're after, they want to know what they have to do to get it. Be straight with employees from the beginning. Not everyone can be the CEO, but assure them that you're committed to helping them grow within the organization. Employees need and want role models: 60% of those responding said they'd be willing to leave their jobs just to follow their mentors. Offer more than just traditional health and welfare benefits. Adequate time off and flexible working hours can be powerful perks.

As I mentioned in the first section, employees want challenges and opportunities for growth. If you provide those opportunities, you'll improve your staff's morale as well as its effectiveness. People learn best by doing things beyond their skill. Place employees under some pressure; have them work with people who are more experienced than they

are or thrust them into a leadership role. Provide feedback, training and mentoring to anyone you place in a stretch assignment. Pressure without guidance is demoralizing.

Managers often put up with under performers and that's a big mistake. Leaving under performers in place undermines the rest of the staff. It's difficult to offer growth opportunities to some employees when others clearly can't handle a challenge. After these are in place, you need a plan for positive reinforcement. Here's how to create an incentive system that will recognize strong performance and encourage excellence.

Change the incentive system periodically, so that it retains its motivational power. Bonus systems that never change become part of the background. Employees view them as entitlement programs. Review programs regularly to make sure staffers don't take the incentives for granted. Smart managers who've realized that improve retention rates by creating company-sponsored ?social communities? throughout their organization.