Habit No. 2: Carefully dole out raises just in case the economy goes south

The bosses say they are giving raises and bonuses, but they obviously aren't what the best performers expect.

"The #1 reason people leave medium and large organizations is "seeking higher pay," the study reported — indicating that there are savvy organizations out there that will pay well and will cherry pick your best people in order to get the jump on you.

Habit No. 3: Failing to adjust recruiting/retention efforts to the needs of the recovery

This one's pretty clear, too. The survey shows that three key positions — IT, management and engineers — are the hardest to recruit. As the economy busted out of the gate, internal systems and management teams were stretched thin. Probably because these positions hadn't been a huge priority in the 2009-2012 period, many employers failed to understand how IT and top management talent could drive a company during an economic upswing. Now, they don't know what to pay them or apparently even where to find them. The historic difficulty with finding good engineers sort of masks the real strategic failure here.

"During the worst recession most employers have ever experienced, too many firms gave little thought to retention, compensation and talent development. Managers felt that anyone who had a job would be content with that alone," said Brian Sommer, founder of Vital Analysis, which follows trends and solutions for the human capital management marketplace.

"Unfortunately, that uninformed or nonchalant attitude is out of sync with the current economic situation. Today, employees have options and they intend to exercise them. Business leaders must adopt new processes and technologies if they wish to remain competitive."