I am usually skeptical of books that promote a specific company or corporate mission. So when I began reading Finding Keepers: The Monster Guide to Hiring and Holding the World’s Best Employees, I was a bit distrustful. And as someone who covers HR, I very much doubted that this book would tell me anything that I hadn’t already heard before.

But I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. The 214-page book is packed with good information and tips for HR executives and recruiters on how to identify and keep the best talent.

Nothing in the book is particularly groundbreaking. But the authors—Steve Pogorzelski, executive vice president of global sales and customer development at Monster; Jesse Harriott, vice president of Global Monster Insights; and Doug Hardy, who runs Monster’s publishing program—do make a strong case for why companies need to approach recruiting as they do marketing.

True to the title, the authors do promote Monster, but not in a way that is offensive to readers. There is a range of perspectives from executives at various companies, including Deloitte, Nationwide Financial and Valero Energy.

In thinking about recruiting the best employees, the authors note that 80 percent of potential candidates are employed, but are “much less attached to their current employer than workers historically have been.”

Not all of these employees are out there looking for new jobs, but they are still willing to go if the right opportunity presents itself. HR executives need to be aware of these employees not just for recruiting purposes, but because many of these “poised employees” are their own workers, the authors note.

The problem with recruiting today is that too often companies approach recruiting as a weeklong transaction. Finding Keepers argues that employers instead should view the employee engagement cycle in three phases: attract, acquire and advance.

The authors say that companies usually peter out after the acquisition phase, and thus good talent doesn’t stay around for very long. The conversation about finding the best talent, therefore, can’t just be a discussion about how to improve hiring practices. Companies need to figure out how to keep these people after they have been hired.

But the first step is to attract the right candidates, and Finding Keepers provides solid ways that recruiters can go about doing this. The book provides very practical advice about how to word a job advertisement and how to make sure the interview experience is positive for candidates. Again, not rocket science, but these are things that—at least in my experience—many employers brush aside.

“The dynamics between employer and candidate during the acquire phase set the tone for the relationship that follows,” the authors say.

This means that companies might want to consider keeping in touch with their second-best candidates in case they need them in the future. For example, the authors suggest reaching out to these “silver medal candidates” and finding out what they thought of the interview process and what they would change. This is just an easy way to keep these candidates engaged and increase your chances of being able to hire them down the line.

Another practical, yet innovative, suggestion from the authors is for employers to understand why employees leave. Too often in exit interviews, the HR executive asks, “Why are you leaving for this other company?” The authors say the question should be “Why were you looking for a new job?” Again this isn’t rocket science, but I bet it would greatly help companies understand why their employees leave.

As I was reading this book, I couldn’t help thinking about all of the bad interview experiences I have had in my career. It felt like dating—waiting for them to call and often never hearing back. Once, it took a year for someone who interviewed me to call back. A year! Our initial interview went well, but he never called to tell me that the company gave the position to an internal candidate. A year later, however, this person called me out of the blue for a different job—he still had all of my news clips and résumé. Clearly, I had made an impression on him, but his failure to reach out to me resulted in my feeling less than excited about going to work for him.

Are companies really sincere about rethinking the way they find and acquire talent? Or do they just assume that once the market goes sour, good talent will come banging on the door? Let me know what you think will happen.