If you're still in a position right now where you need to fire people, you've got to make really good decisions. Don't make the mistake of trying to treat everybody the same. You've got to fire the low-performers. If you've got to put somebody out of a job you owe it to everybody to put the low performers out of a job. Let's say you need to eliminate two positions. You've got to find the two low-performers and fire them and then maybe you could split the cost savings with your remaining employees. After all, they're going to be working harder now.

If you're in a position right now to hire new employees, then you've got to be very, very careful about hiring. It's much better to wait to hire someone than to hire the wrong person. You're going to have a larger applicant pool than normal right now from which to select so you've got to be very selective. Here's a quick way to accelerate that process. Your first step in the selection process should be to try to scare away potential applicants. Tell them all of the downsides of the job. Tell them, "You come work for us and you're going to work harder than you ever have" and then see who's left. The ones who are left are worth testing and interviewing and considering for employment.

Now more than ever there is no room for downtime, waste or inefficiency. It's more important to provide close supervision of your employees right now than ever before and that means you've got to talk through the work so that you make sure people are doing what they need to do and not wasting any time. You need to identify opportunities for short cuts. Even more important you need to identify pitfalls. What are the pitfalls you can warn people of and help them avoid?

Budgets are tight right now and it's tempting to cut back on training. Maybe now is not the time to send employees to conferences. Maybe now is not the time to invest in expensive training classes. Maybe now is not the time to invest in long-term development. But you can't skimp on teaching employees the basic information and techniques they need to do their tasks and responsibilities. If you've got a new employee you better make sure that person has the basic training necessary to do his or her tasks and responsibilities. If you've got an experienced employee who takes on a new task you better make sure that person gets the basic training he or she needs to do that task. If you've got a new technique that will help an employee do a task smarter, faster, or better, don't skimp on that training.

Chances are you are operating in a resource-constrained environment right now. You don't have enough resources to reward your employees the way you would like to. If that's your situation, you're going to have to make a lot of tough judgment calls. Are you going to try and treat everybody exactly the same? I don't think that's fair. I think if your resources are limited when it comes to rewards, you are going to have to do more for some people and less for others based on what they deserve. I think you should let everybody know that the resources for rewards are limited and let everybody know what you need from them. Let everybody know what they need to do in order to earn the minimum. And let everybody know what they need to do to earn more. And then one person at a time, one day at a time, try to help everybody earn more. But in the end you are going to have to make those tough judgment calls and you are going to have to do more for some people and less for others based on what they deserve.


BONUS MANAGEMENT TIP
PAY FOR PERFORMANCE AND NOTHING ELSE
Stop paying people and start buying their results. Short-term pay-for-performance contracts will be the natural culmination of the free market for talent, and therefore, the norm of employment in the new economy. They are also the best way to give free agents exactly what they want most---to be paid what they are worth when they deliver---without breaking the bank. Never forget, an effective pay for performance approach requires all the elements of a well negotiated purchasing contract:
(1) Measurable individual performance benchmarks. Every step of the way, clear deliverables should be clearly defined for every contributor and concrete rewards tied directly to those deliverables.
(2) Clear expectations (among managers and workers alike) about the relationship between specific individual behaviors and specific rewards.
(3) Regular and close monitoring by managers of individual performance and the keeping of good contemporaneous records (this is high maintenance) and ongoing communication about the process between managers and individual contributors.


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