Talent and Turnover

Despite longstanding research interest in understanding causes and consequences of employee turnover, much less is known about the turnover of top talent such as high performers or “stars.” Star employees are disproportionately productive, highly visible, and often maintain strong social networks, all of which makes them desirable to organizations. In this chapter, I review theory and research related to the retention of talented employees including stars, high performers, high potentials, critical roles, and core employees. I structure the review around five key questions: (1) How is talent defined and measured? (2) Are talented employees more likely to quit? (3) What frameworks help us understand star performers? (4) What are the drawbacks of attempting to retain top talent? (5) What additional research is needed?

Stars that Shimmer and Stars that Shine

Stars are not only much higher performing than their peers, but also much more visible within the firm. Star employees are likely to be sought out by their lower-performing peers. Moreover, high visibility and frequent interaction make it likely that the stars will develop abundant social capital. Thus, they are relied on to develop information advantage through their social capital. However, not all of the information effects of stardom are beneficial. Stars’ abundant social capital may produce the unintended side effect of information overload. We highlight the role of talent management in mitigating these information-overload effects for stars, to allow them to shine.