If your business is experiencing decreasing revenues, shrinking budgets and increasing uncertainty …
you cannot afford to focus on talent. Right? Actually, wrong. This is the time when new market leaders
emerge and fortunes are made. Everyone in your industry shares in the pain. This is your organization’s
opportunity to think strategically and invest in order to make relative gains against your competition
and avoid knee-jerk or ineffective responses to external pressures that destroy value.

Based on work with more than 2,000 leading businesses on maximizing people performance,
SuccessFactors recommends the following 4 strategies that deliver superior results in adverse
economic conditions:

1. Establish clarity of goals and rapidly align your workforce to execute the new strategy —
When change is forced upon your business by the external environment, you cannot afford to lose
focus or to delay the necessary course shift.

2. Cut with precision, if you must, but not bluntly — If layoffs become necessary, view them as
your chance to weed out the low performers and let your best talent grow. Optimize the workforce!

3. Focus on your core talent and invest where it counts — Identify the talent that will be essential for
your new strategic direction and invest heavily when others are cutting. Turmoil is when leaders emerge.

4. Be transparent — Avoid the rumor mills. During uncertain times, transparency drives trust and
employee engagement. Companies with high trust financially outperform those with low trust.