Forty-nine percent of employers are implementing special employee-retention strategies in 2006, up from 35 percent in 2004, according to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and The Wall Street Journal's CareerJournal.com.

The survey included 367 HR professionals and 462 employees.

Seventy-three percent of HR professionals said that they were concerned about the voluntary resignations at their organizations.

HR professionals said that the best employee-retention strategies include promoting qualified employees, offering competitive merit increases/salary adjustments, and providing career-development opportunities.

"Offering competitive salaries is important to employees, however, compensation alone is not sufficient for a complete retention strategy," says Susan R. Meisinger, president and CEO of SHRM. "Career-development opportunities and work/life balance are also important, and employers must consider these types of benefits in their retention practices if they want to maintain or increase retention at their organizations."

When asked to cite the top reasons employees choose to leave their employer, HR professionals and employees said better compensation elsewhere, career opportunity elsewhere, and dissatisfaction with potential for career development.