Did you say retention or detention?
The word retention seems to be used more and more in HR jargon, probably encouraged by the 
alarming predictions of a shortage in the labour force.
Most likely the choice of word comes from past times when companies alone had the power to decide on the departure of an employee. A time when people worked for the same company their entire career and the idea of working elsewhere didn’t even come to mind.
Curiously there is plenty of vocabulary to express the opposite: downsizing, abolishment, layoff, ‘cleaning out the closet’, ‘clean-up’, firing, thank you letter, ‘the pink slip’ etc…
It gives a derogatory connotation to an originally positive goal: keeping one’s best resources. Whichever definition we choose, the term opposes the objective.
The act of keeping for oneself what one should put into circulation according to Le Petit Larousse or even Prevention of evacuation according to Le Grand Dictionnaire terminologique.
Do you often find yourself boasting about the merits of your company’s ‘retention program’ to a candidate in an employment interview? Not very appropriate in fact, for if the candidate is in your office, it is because he’s interested in coming…. not going (yet)…
The term retention of employees is inappropriate in the sense of employee loyalty. The act of developing loyalty is in no way related to the act of retaining. There are however other terms which would be more suitable. We do a good job of preserving species threatened with extinction; why not call this an ‘employee preservation program’?
The word retention comes from the verb to hold back, prevent from leaving…like in detention… Everyone knows the expression “No-one is holding you back”. Why? Because everyone knows that it means nothing to hold someone back who has made the decision to leave. It’s too late, the damage is done. How long does the counter-offer work as a method of retention, to retain the key employee who announces that he is leaving? Rarely longer than a year…
Would it not be wiser to make sure that the idea doesn’t even cross your employee’s minds, to ensure that they are truly happy with you? Retention is when you didn’t do what you should have done, when it is too late and all you can do is cage them in. Aren’t incentives and the option of buying shares often referred to as golden cages?
To keep your best resources, each employee must perceive that the grass is not necessarily greener on the other side. It’s as “simple” as that.
The HRjob team wishes you a nice fall.