Your organization hires only the best. And once they're on board, you make a significant investment in each and every one of your employees. When you add up recruitment, orientation, training and continued development, you spend thousands of dollars on each person every year.

And then, after all that investment, you run the risk of having your top performers jump ship. They may be cherry-picked by other companies, seek out a new job because their assignments aren't challenging enough -- or, more than likely, they'll depart because they don't see a roadmap for their continued growth and development within your organization. Given the level of investment and criticality of maintaining a sufficient, qualified leadership bench, this is not a sustainable position.

For most companies, succession planning is a loosely defined concept and poorly implemented process leaving companies vulnerable to having their key managers look elsewhere for new opportunities. Why? Most organizations have no method of collecting, summarizing and analyzing information about their people. And yet it is the intellectual capital - your employees -- that deliver a company's products, services and profits.

So where do you start? In order to lessen the impact of managerial flight, your company must have a sustainable people agenda with the right processes, systems and tools in place. A Strategic People Agenda can help you create a match between your organization's future needs and the aspirations of your top employees. The only way to keep talented people is to clearly communicate a career path and establish a plan to help develop gaps in their abilities. Once you know where your people aspire to go, you can provide them with challenging opportunities to sharpen their skills. In return, they will reward you with outstanding results. Now more than ever, retaining your leaders is an economic and strategic imperative.

Hundreds of companies around the world, from American Airlines and BMW to NASDAQ and Watson Wyatt, are turning to Success Associates to help develop strategic processes for deploying, leveraging and retaining their key leadership. With Success Associates' simple, powerful and proven processes, your organization can help you create a sustainable strategic people agenda that will allow you to motivate your best and brightest while ensuring your organization is well-positioned to replenish your next generation of leaders.

Learn more about Success Associates' ability to create a Strategic People Agenda for your company...