Businesses facing work force reduction decisions are urged to apply a forward-looking talent strategy to ensure the right people are retained in order to cope with the current recession and optimize the opportunities when the economy turns around.

“Too often when deciding who will stay and who will go, leaders don’t fully factor an individual’s potential to add to the company’s performance both today and when the business turns around,” says Kimberly Rath, president of Talent Plus, Inc., a global human resources consulting firm.

She emphasizes that gauging an individual’s potential to add to a company in the next upturn is as critical as reacting to today’s economic concerns.

With a forward-looking business process called FutureSizingSM, Talent Plus consultants collaborate with business leaders to produce a clear assessment of the current and future work force needs of an organization. Focused on immediate objectives and a future desired state, FutureSizing factors in tenure, salary and performance data tied to each worker as well as a scientific assessment of each staff member’s innate talent. The outcome is the ability to make data-based retention decisions that leave the company sized appropriately for current challenges and prepared to move the organization forward.

While she agrees that tenure, salary and performance metrics are critical components in retention decisions, Rath notes that these criteria work best in determining superstars who the company cannot lose as well as those who the company can clearly do better without.

Because most retention decisions are not so clear-cut, Rath advocates using a worker’s potential to contribute to the company both today and going forward as the deciding factor. This potential to perform is talent — a person’s capacity to achieve near-perfect performance.

“When combined with performance metrics and other data, our structured interviews give leaders a statistically validated measure of an employee’s talent and suitability for roles both in today’s tough business climate and for implementing the company’s vision when the economy rebounds,” she says. The results of a structured interview can help leaders keep more of the right talent and use them in the right role going forward.

Reprinted with permission from Talent Plus.