There’s a big elephant in the room business owners need to start looking at if they haven’t already: the looming workforce shortage. While the media seemed to focus solely on the lack of jobs in recent years, the real story that’s going to impact businesses of all kinds in the coming years is the shortage of workers caused by the constant stream of Baby Boomers leaving the workforce. But what can those businesses that are already feeling the pain do about attracting new talent? Just as importantly, how can they better engage and retain the employees they already have?

This is the second in our series of weekly blogs on the Annual Gathering of Games, the world's largest conference on open-book management. This year marks the 26th anniversary of the event, which attracts business leaders from companies of all sizes, in all industries, from all over the world, who recognize that they can transform their businesses by valuing and elevating their greatest resource: their employees. These articles are written by Great Game employees to highlight some of the highest rated sessions at the 2017 conference. We hope to give you a flavor of the content-rich sessions that can be found at The Gathering of Games. Click the link below to hear the entire audio recording from this breakout session.

This is NOT a regurgitation of the obvious reasons great employees stay. Because great employees show up, deliver results and consistently go above and beyond to support the company, they could easily jump ship for a better job offer, or, if bold enough, strike out on their own. But they don't.

Have you ever considered how open-book management can make the process of attracting top talent into your organization easier? What about employee retention? My company – Netmail, a 100+ employee company – has been practicing open-book for the better part of a decade. During that time, I’ve found that leveraging our transparent culture has significantly increased our ability to attract, acquire and retain top talent in our organization.