The recent IHAF conference demonstrated just how important talent is to the success of an in-house agency. All of the speakers noted how important it is to continuously challenge and stimulate the intellectual curiosity and creativity of their teams. Retaining top employees is a key to the success of any internal agency. So how do we hold on to our stars?

I read an article recently that was a great reminder of what we should all be doing to cultivate our teams.

Some key take-aways are:

• A satisfied employee is clear about what is expected of him/her every day. Shifting expectations puts people on edge and creates unhealthy stress in the workplace.
• Managers play a key role. It’s not enough for a supervisor to be well liked—anything we do to cause our employees to feel under-valued will contribute to turnover.
• Staff members should feel rewarded, recognized and appreciated at work. Simply saying “thank you” to an employee can go a long way.

As I reflect on what it takes to retain top talent, philosophically, I believe if you treat people the way you want to be treated, you’ll end up with satisfied employees. Work is busy, as we race to finish one more task only to go on to the next. As managers, we need to pause for a minute and remind ourselves that work cannot happen without our talented teams.

This month at IHAF, we’re focusing on Talent—and we hope you’ll join the conversation! Share your comments below, chime in on Twitter (@IHAForum), or become part of our membership community. For more about IHAF, ihaforum.org.