MOY Retention Conversation Guide for Managers
Set your managers up to lead proactive retention conversations with your high-performers
Most organizations are good at identifying their strongest contributors. Where they fall short is what happens next. After the mid-year review cycle closes, high performers are recognized internally — and then largely left to fend for themselves.
And then those employees leave. And the organization is surprised.
At JST People Strategy, we believe retention should be a proactive process, not a reactive one. Mid-year is the ideal moment to act on what your performance data is telling you, and that means deploying managers to have deliberate conversations with your high performers before disengagement sets in.
Those conversations need to go beyond performance. They need to surface what keeps an employee energized, what opportunities they want next, what support they need to keep growing, and whether they see a future at the organization. These are not difficult questions. But they require intention and most managers are never asked to have them systematically.
Performance conversations tell you who is succeeding. Retention conversations help ensure they stay.