The war for talent has arrived, and it’s no longer enough to fill cubicles with warm bodies. Businesses are competing for the best talent. To win, your organization must be viewed as a publicly responsible entity. Once upon a time, companies focused solely on how reputation and brand attracted customers. These days, the character of an organization is just as important in recruiting and retaining the best employees to meet the needs of those customers.

Reputation and responsibility reaches beyond recycling efforts, renewable energy, and charity donations. With the web connecting virtual communities around the world, people communicate more than ever before. From social networking to electronic watercoolers, your potential employees will hear things, good or bad, about your organization even if it doesn’t make front-page headlines.

To attract the best, you need the best policies. There are many factors to reputation and responsibility that matter to potential employees, but how you’re going to treat them is a big one. From benefits and vacation to flexible work schedules and family support options, are your policies in place to show employees they matter?

If you’ve successfully attracted the best, hold on to them with the same focus on reputation and responsibility, or the company across the street may swoop in to steal an unhappy employee. And if you’re planning to relocate your talent, policies and responsibility can become even more important. Remember that watercooler? Employees will talk to other employees and learn what the relocation experience is like, and if the answer isn’t positive, you may find yourself short an employee when a relocation offer hits the table.

To create a relocation policy that reinforces your commitment to your people and overall corporate responsibility, make the policy inclusive of your organization’s diversity and allow for flexibility to meet individual needs of both the employee and the family. While many organizations today have taken away support systems for their employees—their most critical asset—your organization can set itself apart by implementing employee-focused programs and policies.

And that makes for good watercooler conversation, whether literal or virtual.