HR departments and executives throw the word "retention" around a lot, but in theory at least, it's a good thing for everyone involved, especially you. Workplaces want to find <A HREF="http://blogs.zdnet.com/careers/?p=161&tag=nl.e550">the magic blend of perks and incentives</A> that will keep you from hopping over to the competition; they want to keep you happy.

But mostly they want to do these thing because employee turnover is costly and, in the words of a new report on the topic, "it is generally less expensive to retain good employees than find new ones" thus slowing the pace of employee departures is the best strategy to reduce personnel costs.