In this economy, most organizations will greatly slow down their hiring. They have to be more cautious about extending themselves. Yet the talent crunch is not going to go away. We will recover from the recession, and then we'll face the looming reduction of employees available for our growth. Our projects, product design, sales initiatives, and innovations go onward; their success is more important then ever. And that brings us to knowing and caring for our current people.

Head count reports of various types are the most requested reports into HR. They are even more important now - if they're the right reports being used the right way. We need to know our employees. Who are they? How many of them are there? What are their competencies? What jobs do they do? We need to make sure we hang on to the right people and get them into the most productive roles possible. We must create efficiencies within innovation. We need sparks of creativity to ignite new ways of doing business. This is how America has pulled out of tough economic situations before. But we can't innovate our way to greatness if we let the great employees go.

In a poll this month conducted by the Conference Board, a global independent membership organization working in the public interest, about layoffs, the focus is directed toward precision layoffs. This means fewer voluntary packages will be offered to leave a job. Companies can be very selective about who they let go. HR must be very careful about their selection of who they let go. You don't want to be the person responsible for letting an A Player go and keeping a B Player. Retaining great talent is critical. Business Week's recent article, "Career Advancement in Tough Times," says 'the time to shine' in your career is now. It's a good idea to watch for individuals who bring answers and great ideas to the table. Who is bringing value to the organization? Great ideas, not just great cost cutting, will move companies into the thrive stage of this economy. This has to be done with the people of an organization.

If you're facing employee layoffs, I suggest you be VERY careful and help your company be very careful about the selection of who exits. There may be positions in your company that need the players you're considering cutting. Do you know where those positions are? I recommend that you filter and sort your people in many ways to get the sense of which positions they could succeed. Make sure you build your succession plan deep into your bench with the employee base you have now, so that before you cut employees, you know who you're planning as best successors in the future. Make sure you don't cut rising stars and high potential employees. Your attention to detail in HR will be more important now than ever.

Cheers,
Lois

Lois Melbourne is CEO and Co-Founder of Aquire, Inc., a provider of visual workforce planning and management solutions based in Irving, Texas.