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Google (GOOG) wants to know which of its employees will quit. That is natural since a number of its senior staff have left for positions at other online companies. For the first time since the company started, an exodus of people is including the firm’s best and brightest.

Google thinks it has come up with a way to predict who will leave. If they system works, the search company may be able to approach people with offers to stay.

According to The Wall Street Journal, “Applying a complex equation to a basic human-resource problem is pure Google.” While the new program may be a way to retain talented staff which saves Google the effort and cost of replacing people, it could also be a service that the company can market to thousands of companies all over the world.

Google has had trouble creating products beyond its core search business that make the company money. It efforts to sell PC applications to compete with Microsoft (MSFT) have been a failure based on the volume of sales. YouTube, the company’s huge video-sharing service loses several million a year. Google Maps, another large service, does not bring in any revenue at all.

Retaining the best employees is a problem that faces almost every enterprise in the world, be it government or business. If the Google screen for employees who may leave is a success, it will be a sales goldmine if the search company will license it to the market.

Douglas A. McIntyre