Are you laying off talent, trying to hire for specific positions or hoping to just hang on to your best people during all the uncertainty? Or are you doing all three at once?

We’ve been listening to HR leaders and managers all over the country talking about their workforce challenges. Here’s another one:

How can we continue to send a message about engagement and retention while we lay good people off? It feels counter intuitive and I’m afraid the message will be met with cynicism.

Fair enough. It may seem paradoxical but it is true that a retention message during layoffs not only makes sense but is crucial. Following downsizing, your vulnerability for employee disengagement and departure actually goes up. We know this from looking at history and tracking the “second wave” of departures that follow restructuring and tough times. A senior leader told his employees at an all hands meeting, “You might think it’s odd that we have a speaker today on the topic of engagement and retention, especially give our recent layoff. Here is what I know. We have a lot of work to do. We have big contracts to deliver on and we’re poised to do it. But we cannot do it if we lose talent – leaders and individual contributors alike. We must keep our eye on the ball. We must not lose momentum in the engagement and retention arena.”

Dr. Beverly Kaye is a thought-leader and best-selling author in the area of employee engagement. Her company, Career Systems International, helps organizations worldwide maximize the strategic engagement, development and retention of key talent to increase profitability and deliver significant returns on investment.