As a business owner or CEO, if you are like many that I serve, you struggle with building – and keeping - a solid team. One of the biggest frustrations is the game of fending off the recruiters who call with the lure of greener grass in another pasture.

I just completed two placement searches that I’d like to share with you. The companies that I recruited from made it so easy for me. My message to you is this: plan ahead, take steps to retain your key employees, and "go on the offense" to prevent people like me from easily stealing your people.

The first search was completed for Tom, who owns a profitable $8 million dollar manufacturing business. When we first started talking about finding someone to be GM of his company, Bob was dubious. "Why," he wanted to know, "would someone from a bigger, more sophisticated company, want to come into a small basic manufacturing company like this?"

I knew that someone would be delighted to take the job Tom was offering. The most important reason had to do with Tom himself. Tom is direct, honest, and open. His employees seem to like working in his company. Although Tom didn't see this as special, I knew that he was undervaluing a big asset. I was also very confident that the business had good growth potential and that candidates would welcome the opportunity to make a contribution.

When I met Larry, I knew he had all the skills for the job. His personal values included having respect for others, and personal integrity. The company he was working for had asked him to turnaround a failing plant. As part of that process he negotiated stretch performance goals with the people who were directly responsible for implementing changes. Everyone worked together and the goals were dramatically exceeded. Yet, when it was time to pay the promised incentives, the CEO refused, arbitrarily. That CEO didn't understand why this might be short sighted and poor leadership.

I met Larry shortly after that incident and he was very ready to accept my recruiting call. Needless to say, I had no problem showing him a greener pasture.

In my first Ezine, I told you about a client who had the courage to search for a new Sales Manager, even though the one who was being replaced had performed adequately. Ralph, who had great success with a larger competitor, loves being in sales and sales management. However, he was just completing his third year in a marketing job and was itching to get back to sales.

Ralph took my recruiting call after he had completed fruitless discussions with his superiors about getting back into sales management. He was easy to place as well.

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What do you want your employees to say if/when a recruiter calls? How can you be sure that your people will say no when the recruiter calls? Here are some valuable tips to ensure that key employees are retained, happy, and resistant to the tempting calls of the recruiting sirens:

• If you do not want them to welcome a call from a recruiter start now, before it is too late. The first step is to start by paying attention to their goals and values. You will not keep good people if you are not creating an environment where they can obtain the rewards that are most important to them.

• Start talking to them about their feelings about working for your company. Although the answer might stretch you to go outside your current assumptions, paying attention will make you less vulnerable. The questions to ask might include--What changes might further our mutual goals? How satisfied are you with your job at this time? Are we satisfying your career goals?

• Ensure that your key employees are truly valued, and have a fair compensation plan in place. Be sure you know what motivates them, and respect their personal goals and aspirations. You can’t have loyal employees until you have happy employees first. Put yourself in their shoes once in a while.

Sharing this sage advice could make my job more challenging, but I’m confident that there will always be a good pool of business owners and CEOs who continuously neglect their people. Of course, I hope you will heed this advice because I honestly do wish you success in building your team. Any CEO worth his or her salt is never surprised when a key employee leaves. There is usually an underlying issue that nobody wants to address.

When it comes to preserving their current team, I encourage my clients to do it themselves or use my help in this dialogue with employees, and understanding the meaning of the answers. The owners who find a solution keep their best people because they constantly are finding new ways to grow together.

Who knows… I may be calling your company soon. Have the receptionist put me through!