In the PricewaterhouseCoopers 12th Annual Global CEO Survey 2009, 97 percent of CEO’s answered "access to, and retention of, key talent” is their number one source of competitive advantage in sustaining growth over the long term. Aptly, many talent management strategies aim squarely at retention of top talent. The corresponding talent management practices can include internal mobility and career management, goals alignment, succession planning, and more.

Many studies, though, find a gap between acknowledgement of the importance of retention of top performers and the talent management practices and processes in place. For instance, one study of IT workers found:
Over half of employees surveyed did not feel there was sufficient scope for progression in their careers (54%) although the potential for career development when evaluating new roles was deemed important by over two thirds of respondents (67%).

The Taleo Research paper, Talent Retention: Six Technology-Enabled Best Practices, focuses on key practices that organizations can implement with technology support to retain their top talent:
1. Recruit the right people in the first place.
2. Improve the line manager’s ability to manage.
3. Give employee’s constant feedback about clear, meaningful goals.
4. Empower employees to manage their own careers.
5. Proactively drive talent mobility.
6. Continuously measure and improve retention strategies.

From recruiting to performance, talent management applications can support specific retention strategies aimed at first identifying top candidates and then nurturing and valuing top performers during their employment tenure.