Book excerpt: What's your strategy to remain competitive? Trainers realize that recruiting the right people with the right skills and providing them with great training is key to creating a great business. With the arrival of measurement and return-on-investment calculations for these key business activities comes the realization from business professionals that performance management does make a difference in profits, sales, and customer satisfaction. With a company's need to recruit and keep the best talent, performance management is its best strategy for remaining competitive in the global marketplace in which employees have more choices than ever before. Performance management is used to improve both personal and organizational skills. Recruiting and Retaining Call Center Employees illustrates the various ways employees can reach their potential and thereby contribute to the bottom line, made all the more profitable by creating stronger and more stable companies that can offer higher wages and excellent benefit packages. Combining theory with practical advice on training, recruiting, and evaluating programs, this book provides the trainer with practical models and guides. Plus, cases on process and technology provide a full range of solutions in creating a call center that is well ahead of the competition. ASTD is proud to present the 22nd book in the IN ACTION series: 11 cases that provide numerous examples of performance management programs in diverse applications. One basic premise remains constant in all of the applications: People matter most, and, when they adopt a relationship-based leadership style, the workplace becomes successful. Performance management involves all willing participants creating a learning environment together.