NEW YORK -- New hires can cost an organization with more than 500 employees more than $10,000, and that’s not including training or salaries. That means retaining talent and motivating current staff should be a major concern for companies trying to survive a recession.

“No matter what is ahead for your accounting firm, it is never a good time to lose great people,” said Carol Ann Caccioppoli, director of Retensa, an employee retention strategies firm, who recently aided Human Resources Committee members in ensuring their firms’ and companies’ best accounting talent is being retained.

Employee disengagement is also a widespread issue that needs attention. Sixty-eight percent of employees feel disconnected from their work responsibilities, according to Retensa’s Web site. A company could have bodies in the seats, but they may not be producing.

Chason Hecht, the strategy firm’s president, put it this way: “Some people quit and leave. Some people quit and stay.”

But how do you determine who should stay and how to keep those high-performing employees loyal and productive?

History has shown, she cautioned, that as unemployment decreases, voluntary turnover increases—and most often, it is the top talent who leaves.

Employee turnover can cost up to 40 percent of a company’s annual profits, Caccioppoli said, For example, an organization with 1,000 employees, with an average turnover rate of 20 percent and average salaries of $42,000, spends approximately $8.4 million on employee turnover each year, she said.

Retention strategies differ, but follow some of the same guidelines, Caccioppoli said.

“Employers should not be spending more than 15 percent of their time with low performers,” she said, “or less than 25 percent of their time with high performers.”

She also recommended that top management pay special attention to a subgroup of high-performing workers she called “high potentials.”

High potentials are those high-performing employees with the desire and ability to move forward within an organization. They are often motivated by more than just cash, Caccioppoli said.

“Money is only the motivator when you are doing everything else wrong,” she said.

Instead, employers must speak to these valuable employees’ values. High potentials tend to put a higher value on fulfilling their development goals than on dollars and cents. Most high potentials, Caccioppoli said, want a clearly defined career path, learning opportunities and the benefits of real life work experience and apprenticeship, a mentor to guide them, frequent performance appraisals and feedback.