During these difficult and recessionarytimes, it becomes particularly important for companies to retain their verybest employees and leaders. Often times, as companies are in the mode ofretrenching and surviving, they overlook the value of their best employees,leaders and teams. Startups and big companies both thrive on the drive andtenacity of these employees who have proven themselves time and again. As theeconomic climate turns difficult, it is quite easy for entrepreneurs andbusiness leaders to overlook the value and contributions of these criticalemployees and contributors. So, how does one effectively retain these “star”employees during such difficult phase of the business?

Know your “A” team

It is important for you to know your“A” team or “Star” team. Employees who are super critical for you to achieveyour business performance and objectives. These employees are the heart andsoul of your organization, driving revenues, innovation, customer sat, andoperational excellence. It is also important that these employees explicitlyhear from you, that they are indeed special. Being explicit with your feedbackwill give them additional comfort that they are being valued in theorganization.

Make them more involved in your corebusiness strategy

Now is a good time to get your coreteam to get even more involved in shaping the strategy of the business. If youhad been reluctant in the past to share with them all the financial risks andchallenges, now is a good time for you to become honest and bring them in theloop. This additional vote of confidence and trust will further enhance theirloyalty towards you and the business. Business leaders use the downturn anddifficult times to further raise the commitment levels from their topperformers. This may be a good time to have strategy sessions focused onestablishing a game plan for the future. How can we reduce cost, withoutrisking revenues and innovation? Let your team start to create strategies foryou.

Offer Upward mobility

As you take down cost, reducemanagement layers or retrench from lines of businesses, it is important to lookout for opportunities for your best employees. This would be a good time forcertain key employees to take on additional responsibilities and get promoted.Perhaps, as you look to do much more with less, these best employees canincrease their span of influence and leadership to help you attain yourbusiness goals. This requires creativity on your part to find opportunities foryour key employees and team that both fit the needs of the business and providegrowth path for the team. Many times, during business reorganization keyemployees find themselves demoted or are left with reduced responsibilities.These situations can certainly lead to significant retention challenges.

Drive Trust and Transparency

When organizations go through toughpatch, it is quite important to emphasize a culture of trust and transparency.Key employees expect to be kept in the loop as situations arise or businessevolves. As a business leader it is your duty to keep your team in the loop tobuild that sense of trust and transparency. When the going is good, or thecompany is on a growth curve, many key employees might still continue to be partof your team, because they are enjoying the growth. But, when the growth slowsor when growth gives way to actually decline in business, then these sameemployees need to be motivated differently. Trust becomes a key cornerstone ofany retention strategy.

Create a company-wide businesschallenge

Your top employees thrive onchallenges. As the business transitions from high growth to one with mutedgrowth or even decline in business, it becomes critically important to find newchallenge to inspire your “A” team. These employees were once thriving ongrowth and market share, but now, are looking for the next challenge. Giventhat the market conditions and business conditions are currently not supportinggrowth to the same extent, it may be wise to identify some new businesschallenges to rally the star performers. Perhaps, your next goal could be astrong push towards improving profitability (as opposed to growth), or to leadthe market in terms of product innovation or to drive service qualityexcellence and customer sat. These new goals will inspire your top performersto get focused on this new company wide challenge.

I increasingly meet with entrepreneurs and founders who are facingstrong retention risks with their top performers, while they are reducing workforce or reorganizing their cost structures. The 5 Steps of retention outlined above become quite important duringthese tumultuous times. More businesses collapse when these star performersstart to emotionally “check out” and exit, than for other reasons. Noorganization can thrive without its “heart and soul” which these top performersrepresent. Let us ensure we do not loose them during these times ofretrenchment.

Gunjan Sinha