taking Guangdong zhengyuan certified public accountants as an example, this paper systematically and deeply analyzes the present situation of private enterprises in China, analyzes the demand and incentive mechanism of core employees, and discusses how to retain the core employees of enterprises, so as to provide useful suggestions for the further development and growth of private enterprises. Keywords private enterprises; Core employees; Incentive mechanism 1. Background analysis In the past twenty years, China's economy has grown rapidly and its economic structure has become increasingly perfect, in which the private economy is playing an increasingly important role. According to relevant statistics, there are more than 2 million private enterprises in China alone. After China's entry into WTO, a large number of multinational companies have entered the China market, and the competition among their peers has become more and more fierce. The development of private enterprises is facing great pressure. The source of enterprise competitiveness mainly lies in the active factors within the enterprise, among which the human capital of the enterprise is the core. It not only participates in the input, output and market activities of the enterprise as a production factor, but also configures and manages the production factors and various operational links. In the final analysis, the competition between enterprises is the competition of talents, more precisely, the competition of core talents. Carnegie, the king of steel, once said, "Take my factory, take my railway, take my boat, take my money and even take everything, but as long as I leave my core staff, I will regain everything I lost in a year or two." As the core competitive resource of an enterprise, the intelligence and physical strength contained in the core employees are the most important. "Core employees refer to those employees who have specialized technology, control the core business of the enterprise, control the key resources of the enterprise, and have a profound impact on the survival and development of the enterprise, including top managers, R&D backbones and other knowledge innovators and senior skilled workers". They generally have the following characteristics: they are closely related to the core technology and management of enterprises; Promote the technology and management level of enterprises; Expand the market share of enterprises and improve their operating conditions. Generally speaking, the core employees of enterprises will account for 21%-31% of the total number of enterprises. They concentrate 81%-91% of the technology and management of enterprises and create more than 81% of the wealth and profits of enterprises. They are the backbone and core of enterprises. With the entry of Wang Peigen and Li Li: Discussion on the Accumulation of Core Talents in Modern Enterprises, Enterprise Reform and Development, No.4, 2114. With the full entry of foreign-funded enterprises after the second world, the competition is intensifying. Facing the increasingly powerful opponents, core employees have become the main targets in the talent market. They have many opportunities to "jump ship". Once they "jump ship", the losses caused to enterprises are often difficult to estimate. Objectively speaking, the best people will find it easiest to leave their jobs, and those who give up their positions are often those excellent talents, such as the directors, managers or technical experts of enterprises, who are the core employees of enterprises and may be the key to their current and future success. The loss of core employees has a great impact on the normal production and operation of enterprises, which leads to the instability of enterprise management, affects the development strategy of enterprises and has a direct negative impact on the operation and management of private enterprises. Therefore, private enterprises should consider the retention of core employees at the height of their sustainable development strategy. From February to March, 2116, the author conducted an internship in the administrative and financial department of Guangdong Zhengyuan Certified Public Accountants Co., Ltd. for nearly one month. Guangdong Zhengyuan Certified Public Accountants Co., Ltd. is a small and medium-sized private enterprise established in 2113, mainly engaged in the verification of registered capital, bank mortgage assets, accounting statement audit, assets and liabilities audit and financial revenue and expenditure audit and authentication; Business management, auditing, accounting consulting, etc. The internal organization of the company consists of the administrative and financial department, the business development department, the audit department, the tax agency department, the technical department and the evaluation department, and all departments are directly under the control of the general manager's office. Its internal practitioners include 23 certified public accountants, 5 certified cost engineers, 9 certified tax agents, 6 certified asset appraisers and 7 real estate appraisers. Investigating the human resources of Guangdong Zhengyuan Certified Public Accountants Co., Ltd., it is found that those professional practitioners are all knowledge-based employees. With their professional knowledge, experience and rich customer resources, they control the core business of the company, and other senior managers of the company are all core employees of the company. Therefore, retaining these core employees has become the key to the success or failure of the firm's competition. Based on the analysis of the actual situation of the core staff of Guangdong Zhengyuan Certified Public Accountants, this paper puts forward some thoughts on how to retain the core staff of private enterprises, hoping to draw lessons from the core talent management of private enterprises. Second, the analysis of the reasons for the brain drain of private enterprises The competition for talents is so fierce that it is necessary for private enterprises to find out the root causes of the brain drain. Based on the analysis of the actual situation of Guangdong Zhengyuan Certified Public Accountants Co., Ltd., the author believes that the reasons for the staff turnover in private enterprises in China mainly include the following four aspects: (1) Personal factors of employees usually leave private enterprises, which are often core employees. Compared with ordinary employees, the core employees of private enterprises have the following personality characteristics. Take Guangdong Zhengyuan Certified Public Accountants Co., Ltd., where the author works as an intern, as an example. Most of its core employees are knowledge workers. First of all, because they have professional knowledge and skills, rich working experience, know the importance of their own value to enterprises, have a strong sense of autonomy, and are loyal to their own Zhao Shuming: "Research on Human Resource Management Strategy of China Enterprise Group", Nanjing University Press, 2113 edition. 3 career, not limited to the development of an enterprise. Secondly, they have strong dedication to work, attach importance to improving their own quality, have a strong willingness to learn, and are eager to get re-education and training opportunities to improve their competitiveness. If enterprises can't meet their needs, they are likely to choose job-hopping. Thirdly, they hope to be recognized and respected by the society, and at the same time, they have a higher pursuit of work and life. Once they encounter better development opportunities, they are likely to choose to leave. Finally, they have a strong desire for achievement, have very clear career goals, are eager to achieve a personal career, demand more autonomy and decision-making power in their work, and hope to participate in the management of the enterprise and reach a partnership relationship with the enterprise. (II) Internal organizational factors There is a general dislocation between the internal organizational factors of private enterprises in China and the requirements for retaining core talents, which is embodied in the following three points: 1. The salary system is unreasonable. The wages and benefits provided by private enterprises to talents are generally low, and many private enterprises want to obtain talents' knowledge, technology and experience with the lowest remuneration. Of course, compared with state-owned enterprises and foreign enterprises, private enterprises have greater pressure on policy funds, hoping to minimize labor costs and make up for competitive disadvantages. But in this way, to a great extent, talents are not satisfied with material rewards. 2. Work pressure, lack of humanized management. Because private enterprises are facing great pressure of survival and development, they always want to maximize the existing resources of enterprises. Thus, in private enterprises, it is basically a high-intensity and fast-paced working environment. When employees work in a highly stressful and stressful environment, their work quality and efficiency cannot be guaranteed for a long time. Take Suning Appliance and Kelon Appliance as examples. These are two large-scale household appliances private enterprises, but there are still some shortcomings in their work design and management. For example, in the peak season, employees work overtime for a long time and lack humanized care, resulting in a large number of employees losing every year. 3. Internal management is not perfect. Most of China's private enterprises are small and medium-sized family-run enterprises, lacking clear enterprise development goals and imperfect management system. There are two problems here: first, private enterprises lack clear development goals, which makes talents feel that they have no development prospects in enterprises and lack a sense of security. Secondly, private enterprises have chaotic management, unclear job responsibilities, lack of basic management systems, poor execution, and many systems are constantly changing, which is easy to dampen the enthusiasm of employees. In Guangdong Zhengyuan Certified Public Accountants Co., Ltd., the leadership of the company is mainly five partners in the early stage of entrepreneurship, and there are some problems in the management incentive system, practice environment and operation system. Due to the lack of training funds and effective training mechanism, most employees of the company mainly charge after work and study independently and improve independently. In addition, the company's business is cyclical. In the peak season, employees need to work overtime for a long time, and the work pressure is very high. For a long time, the employees of the company were not loyal to the company and it was easy to leave. (III) Social factors 4 Guangdong Zhengyuan Certified Public Accountants Co., Ltd., like other firms, has a number of certified public accountants affiliated with the company. This type of employees, wandering on the edge of several units, are engaged in several jobs, and when better job opportunities come, they may choose to leave. It can be seen that social factors also play an important role in the loss of core employees. The social factors that affect the loss of employees mainly include policies and regulations, social culture, traditional habits, and supply and demand in the labor market. Among the social factors affecting brain drain, an important defect is the lack of credit mechanism. Social credit is based on personal credit, and honesty and trustworthiness should be the basic principle of being a man. However, from the perspective of the whole society at present, we don't have an effective credit mechanism. Many people believe in the concept of "Man struggles upwards and water flows downwards" and are indifferent to the losses caused to the original enterprises. Huang Hongsheng, chairman of the board of directors of Skyworth Group, once said: "I am not afraid of job-hopping, but I am afraid that I will not be faithful and have no rules." (IV) Economic Environment According to an employee satisfaction survey conducted by Guangdong Zhengyuan Certified Public Accountants Co., Ltd. last year, excessive overtime is one of the main reasons for the high turnover rate of accounting firms. The staff of the firm have a strong need for four dimensions, including the remuneration and welfare of work, the expectation and pressure of work, the opportunity of education and training, and the willingness of professional development. After China's entry into WTO, a large number of multinational companies have joined the competition, and the trend of global competition for human resources has become increasingly obvious, and the competition among enterprises has intensified, especially for talents. Enterprises are poaching for the best talents. "In the three ownership enterprises, the overall level of incentives for managers, the level of developmental rewards and the level of material rewards for managers are in the form of foreign-funded enterprises, traditional state-owned enterprises and private enterprises from high to low". Compared with other types of enterprises, most private enterprises are still weak. In order to better implement the localization strategy of China, many foreign-funded enterprises do not hesitate to use all their strength and means to start with the core employees of weak private enterprises, and employees will choose higher pay, better job opportunities and development space, which will also lead to the partial loss of core employees of private enterprises. Third, the impact of the brain drain on private enterprises. Human resources are the cornerstone of the survival and development of enterprises, and the impact of the brain drain on enterprises is mainly manifested in: (1) Cost loss. The first thing that the brain drain causes to enterprises is cost loss, which mainly includes the following aspects: 1. Historical cost refers to the expenses incurred on resigned personnel, including recruitment fees, induction and training fees. 2. Replacement cost refers to the cost needed to fill the vacancy of the original employees. ① Zhang Yiqi: The Influence of Enterprise Ownership on Employment Relationship in China from the Extended Incentive-Contribution Model, Management World, No.12, 2114. 5 3. Opportunity cost refers to the difference in performance between new employees and former employees and the indirect cost loss caused by employee turnover. In particular, the loss of core employees will affect the projects he was originally responsible for, thus bringing long-term and huge indirect cost losses to the enterprise. (2) Reducing job performance In Zhengyuan Certified Public Accountants Co., Ltd., it takes a lot of financial and material resources to train an excellent professional practitioner. Once they choose to quit, the company will have to pay for filling their vacancies. Moreover, in the short term, it is difficult to find a substitute business expert, which will cause direct losses to the company's current business. In addition, their departure may also take away the company's core information and major customer groups, which will have a major impact on the operation of the office. If the resigned employees grasp better job opportunities, it will also bring bad demonstration influence to other employees of the enterprise. Staff turnover not only causes cost loss to the enterprise, but also has a negative impact on the overall work performance of the enterprise. 1. The negative attitude before employee turnover will reduce the quality and efficiency of work in that period. 2. Staff turnover may bring business information and market loss. The loss of technical personnel to other enterprises may take away the technical experience and information of the original enterprise. The loss of sales staff often takes away the core customer resources, which makes the existing market of enterprises lose and the market share decline. 3. Employee turnover will have a negative impact on the interpersonal relationship within the enterprise. For example, the loss of key figures in the work team will lead to the decline of the team's efficiency and have a negative effect on the team cohesion. Fourth, the strategic choice of enterprises to retain core employees (I) Analysis of the basic needs of core employees The hierarchy of needs theory of American psychologist Maslow (1943) shows that the needs of employees are complex and diverse, and the needs of different employees are different, even for the needs of the same person, in different time, space and external conditions, corresponding changes will occur. Private enterprises must have a comprehensive understanding of the needs of employees if they want to effectively motivate the company's core employees. 1. The demand for high salary "Whether ordinary employees or top managers, the most popular form of incentives is material incentives. The proportion of senior managers' choice of material incentives is as high as 74%, and the proportion of ordinary employees is also 58%, which is the highest among multiple choices. It can be considered that in private enterprises, interest incentive is the first demand. Considering the current situation of our country, when faced with the high housing prices in China and the pressure of medical care, old-age care and children's enrollment, the incentive effect of salary is obvious, and high salary has a strong incentive effect on the core employees of domestic enterprises. Xiao Zhuoji, a famous economist, put forward that the key to solving the problem of enterprise competitiveness at present is the high salary of senior managers and technicians. ① Steven Yang: Research on the Operational Effectiveness of Management Mechanism of Private Enterprises, nankai business review, No.5, 2115. Balance the value they create with their income. 2. As the core employees of an enterprise, the demands of self-work, self-development and self-realization have great uncertainty in their working situations and great flexibility in their work. This requires the core staff to make timely adjustments according to the specific situation, and it is best for the core staff to manage, supervise and implement the work process, standards, methods and schedule. The self-value of core employees determines that they have higher pursuits. Through the study of new knowledge and technology, to enhance their own value, there are higher requirements for career planning and development, hoping to achieve their own career through hard work. 3. Enterprises and leaders agree that this is a prerequisite for managers to be promoted; For business experts, this is an affirmation of their ability and quality, and it is also the basis for further broadening their development space; For technical staff, this is the affirmation of their skills and the recognition of their technological innovation work. These recognitions are the basic premise for the further development of core employees. 4．