Developing Talent in a Time of Layoffs

(by Steve Hardesty, Ph.D.)

Today, layoffs are mounting at a frightening pace. Normally, I hear about unemployment as a statistic: Only 5% or 6% last year, maybe going as high as 9% or even to double digits in 2009. These are scary figures for the economy, but unless you are part of that statistic, less personally frightening. This time around, I know several great people who have been laid off. These are real people, with real careers, real families, and real hopes and dreams. They are not culls from a bloated workforce. They are talented, hardworking, ethical, dedicated, experienced professionals.

And they are now looking for new jobs in an economy that is not producing many. I’m very concerned for these folks and I feel for their plight. I also wonder why they lost their jobs when others did not. Some of the reasons were beyond their control, just bad luck or bad timing. What about the things they might do differently next time, to avoid ever going through this painful and personally devastating experience again? I think there are a few themes they would report, and I think these are relevant to each of our organizations as we think about retaining and engaging the “survivors.”

Overspecialization:

In this age of specialties, the employment market often pays a high premium for experts in increasingly narrow areas. However, when the market contracts and becomes glutted in your specialty area, or when your company can no longer afford to maintain specialists in your area, then you survive by being able to adapt. Those who have great depth and no breadth are in grave danger; their premium becomes a liability in bad times.

Among the survivors, adaptability means they can take on tasks and responsibilities outside what they have done before. Cross-training and broader development are hedges against future downturns and the smart survivors will take advantage of opportunities to learn new things and increase their overall market value.

Loyalty:

How can we fault a virtue such as loyalty? Perhaps it is misplaced loyalty that puts people at risk. People become personally attached to their employer, or rather, the people with whom they work. They pass up challenges, new jobs, new positions, and new ways of becoming better because they are attached to the status quo. Smart survivors regularly seek out new challenges, learn new skills; they embrace new and better ways of doing things. And those employees, even if they leave their employer or are laid off, will be much more inclined to bring their talents back to the employer who helped them develop those talents, when the time is right.

Getting the right results in the wrong way:

We all know real jerks that get away with bad behavior because they deliver results. In downturns such as this one when everyone has trouble producing results, the once-productive jerks become expendable. Smart survivors develop the “how” as well as the “what” of great performance, which helps them to survive when nobody is producing great results.

Fear of Success (the unknown):

Have you noticed that unhappy people are more likely to be the ones who are laid off? Is that simply because employers would rather go through hard times with pleasant people? I think there is another factor at work here. People whose skills and interest are mismatched with their jobs are frequently unhappy and dissatisfied. Yet they remain in those jobs, year after year. Employees who have found their niche are more productive and are happier employees. They are motivated and tend to stay with the company.

Smart survivors will look for opportunities in the organization that will fit them and showcase their talents. When they find these opportunities, they take them.

Where are the lessons for the organization

Companies do what they have to do to survive; smart companies take advantage of difficult business downturns to develop their people. This prepares the company to weather the storm with the best and brightest of its talent more fully onboard and permits it to recover rapidly and more successfully than the competition when conditions improve.

Smart companies provide development opportunities, in good times and in bad, because they need people to fill the current gaps and to be ready for an uncertain, but certainly changing future.
Smart companies challenge people by demanding that they learn new things, new ideas, and that they embrace ways to constantly become better. Great companies take the risk of pushing their people to be better and more valuable in the employment market. They are repaid because their employees constantly become better and increasingly loyal to the company that has helped to develop their talent.
Smart companies focus development on positive performers who find constructive ways to get their results rather than tolerating destructive individuals who deliver short term gains.
Smart companies constantly work to put their people in positions where they can be most successful and where their skills and interest match what the job requires. They develop systems and processes that allow people to develop an accurate picture of themselves, understand career opportunities and navigate their way to success.