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

Know your “A” team

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

Make them more involved in your core business strategy

Now is a good time to get your core team to get even more involved in shaping the strategy of the business. If you had been reluctant in the past to share with them all the financial risks and challenges, now is a good time for you to become honest and bring them in the loop. This additional vote of confidence and trust will further enhance their loyalty towards you and the business. Business leaders use the downturn and difficult times to further raise the commitment levels from their top performers. This may be a good time to have strategy sessions focused on establishing a game plan for the future. How can we reduce cost, without risking revenues and innovation? Let your team start to create strategies for you.

Offer Upward mobility

As you take down cost, reduce management layers or retrench from lines of businesses, it is important to lookout for opportunities for your best employees. This would be a good time for certain key employees to take on additional responsibilities and get promoted. Perhaps, as you look todo much more with less, these best employees can increase their span of influence and leadership to help you attain your business goals. This requires creativity on your part to find opportunities for your keyemployees and team that both fit the needs of the business and provide growth path for the team. Many times, during businessre organization key employees 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 tough patch, 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 business evolves. As a business leader it is your duty to keep your team in the loop to build that sense of trust and transparency. When the going is good, or the company is on a growth curve, many key employees might still continue to be part of your team, because they are enjoying the growth. But, when the growth slows or when growth gives way to actually decline in business, then these same employees need to be motivated differently. Trust becomes a key cornerstone ofany retention strategy.

Create a company-wide business challenge

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

I increasingly meet with entrepreneurs and founders who are facing strong 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 during these tumultuous times. More businesses collapse when these star performersstart to emotionally “check out” and exit, than for other reasons. No organization can thrive without its “heart and soul” which these top performers represent. Let us ensure we do not loose them during these times of retrenchment.

Gunjan Sinha