Not All Job Seekers Are After BMWs.

GIGANTIC salaries and signing bonuses! Glamorous spa retreats for employees! A brand-new BMW if you join us and stay for over a year!

Each of these examples is a true story. Clearly, the "war for talent" is escalating to absurd levels, as businesses compete to hire and hold on to the best employees.

Money and other seductive offerings are certainly one way to attract talent -- but what if your firm simply can't afford such goodies? Don't panic: You can still compete, attracting high-quality employees as well as retaining them and helping them maximize their potential so that they, and your firm, benefit.

The secret? Letting job candidates know that you and your organization care about helping them get on the right career path, and helping them move forward on that path as quickly as possible.

The attraction factor

To catch -- and keep -- attractive job candidates, you don't necessarily need to flash dollar signs. Today's job seekers like money, of course, but they are just as serious about managing their own careers and getting as much help from their employers as possible.

Let them know that you care about their professional growth. Equally important, show them that you'll help them find work that's interesting to them and that provides them with the rewards they value most.

Why emphasize their business interests and reward values rather than skills?

Interests and "reward values" are much more stable over time than skills. Our research indicates that a person's basic work interests -- such as using technology, mentoring, and working creatively -- form early in life and remain stable throughout the person's lifetime. The value a person places on different rewards -- e.g., interesting colleagues, autonomy and recognition for work done well -- remains stable as well.

To keep valued employees, have regular "professional development reviews" during which you take stock of the match between the person's current role and his or her interests, reward values, and existing skills. Then, as we describe in "Job Sculpting: The Art of Retaining Your Best People" (Harvard Business Review, September-October 1999), think together about how you might "tweak" or "sculpt" the person's responsibilities to make their work more interesting and rewarding. Then, if sculpting isn't going to make enough of a change, help the person identify other opportunities within the company that will provide the best possible match.

It may feel strange at first to talk so openly about change -- after all, you want people to stay, not go! But you'll get used to it. This isn't rocket science and you don't need a Ph.D. in human resources to do it. And by doing so, you're showing employees that you and your organization are serious about supporting them as they manage their careers. Paradoxically, by talking straight about change, people are more likely to stay with you. You're not only helping people find more satisfaction in their work; you're also increasing their employability and their value to the organization. Everybody wins. And you save the company from the enormous costs of recruiting, hiring and training replacements.

Maximizing employee performance

Another way to keep top-shelf talent is to help achievers do what they love to do most: do their best. People want to work for managers and companies where they can contribute their best. Striving for success and growth is among the most basic of human desires.

The problem is that most people (managers included) are, in effect, swimming with weights around their ankles, all too common behavior patterns that keep them from reaching their true potential in the organization. Problem behaviors come in many forms. They include rebelling against authority, avoiding conflict, always looking at the downside of suggested changes, and other forms that most people have little trouble recognizing.

Worse, people tend not to be aware of these problematic patterns (in themselves, at least). Thus a key responsibility for any manager is to help employees get rid of those weights. After all, individuals can be on the right career path but still failing.

Attracting, retaining and maximizing the performance of employees arms your firm with a powerful weapon for competing in the war for talent. And, it's a lot easier on the company's bottom line than doling out all those BMWs -- only to watch as employees leave for a company that provides free Porsches!

Psychologists James Waldroop and Timothy Butler are directors of MBA career development at the Harvard Business School.