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A web article by ROI Consulting says that finding, hiring, and training a new employee to replace one who leaves can cost as much as 50 percent of the new employee's salary. Multiply this by the number of employees a company might lose in a year, and it's easy to see what this can do to a bottom line.

Worse, when employees leave they take knowledge and experience with them. And still worse, they may take it to your competitors.

That's why keeping good employees just makes good business sense. They're a big investment.

The ROI article goes on to say that whether you have 10 people or 10,000, your company can't grow without "bench strength." But building a strong bench takes a plan. Recruiting. Hiring. Training future leaders. And of course, planning for the retirement of old ones (a process often called "succession planning"). A good talent optimization plan makes sure your company has the skills to follow its business strategy through all these phases.

What is talent optimization?

Talent optimization is a new name for a common-sense ideal. Basically, it's making the most of your staff and their abilities. It starts with hiring the right people in the first place. From there, it means helping them grow in ways that best serve your company's future.

ROI Consulting says that recognizing and developing employee talent is a major difference between average companies and "top-tier" ones.

Another advantage of talent optimization is that it can simplify human resources costs. It can also reduce human resources paperwork and time.

But most important, talent optimization creates healthier companies. Employees feel more creative, useful, and motivated. They feel more valued, and are willing to give more time and effort to their work. They tend to communicate better, which can reduce mistakes and costs that come with them.

Companies with optimization plans see less employee burnout, and have fewer problems with absenteeism. Finally, they're often able to get more done with fewer employees, simply because the right people are doing the right jobs.

And one more thing: some studies say that employees who are "engaged" this way actually focus less on salary and benefits. It seems that while salary and benefits are important for attracting employees, they're not as high on the list for keeping them. Instead, another study suggests employees who stay at a company are interested in things like:

• Feeling like they belong to a desirable culture
• Feeling valued
• Feeling like they can balance work and personal life
• Feeling like they make a difference for the customer
• Feeling like they have a future in the company and maybe management
• Feeling "ownership" of the company.

Of course, this is just a "top-line" summary. And employee talent optimization is still a new idea. But it seems that, done right, employee talent optimization can make a real difference for many businesses. It could be worth your time to look into starting a plan at your company.

Three steps toward employee talent optimization.

So where do you start? Some companies hire consultants. Others do it themselves. But either way, you first have to sit down with your team and plan. The field is growing fast, so you should find plenty of information.

To get started, Simma Lieberman, a consultant with the Workforce Diversity Network, offers these three basic tips:

1. Ask employees what they need to be able to show their skills and talents.

   You might even invite them to talk about their hobbies and other interests. Sometimes an employee's hobby can shed new light on how he or she can add value to your company. You might find that some of the work you were outsourcing, like social networking strategy or outside technical training, can be done by people in your organization. And besides having the talent and experience, they have something even more valuable: they may also have the passion for it.

   Giving employees a chance to talk about themselves also creates a culture that invites more participation. And working together is what makes a good company.

2. Decide which skills and talents your company needs to make a big improvement in your products and services.

   Then share this with employees, and offer incentives or rewards for them to contribute their "personal genius." These incentives can be as simple as a gift card or can be structured into multi-layered rewards or "perks" systems. Whatever the system, when employees contribute, they feel their ideas have value. So they're willing to take a larger stake in the company's success.

3. Where possible, invite ideas for employee success from every level.

   Ask for ways that would make it easier for staff to do their jobs so they could be more productive. Find out if they have ideas on how to provide better customer service. And work together to create best practices to save money, time, and resources.

So if you're interested in ways to promote a better, healthier company; one with less turnover; one that costs less in terms of benefits and loss; and one with a strong, deep "bench" of talent, think about employee talent optimization.

It's a new term. But it's based on a common-sense idea: people who feel like they're in good company tend to act like they're in good company.