By Marty Parker

There's been lots of talk of late about what kinds of things employees need to do to hold onto their jobs during a recession. But let's talk about the other side of things — let's talk about the important steps employers need to take to keep their employees motivated and engaged.

In fact, leaders play a crucial role in retaining top talent in an economic downturn.

This year will be a critical test of Canada’s corporate leaders for a whole variety of reasons. But one of the biggest tests will be their ability to retain top talent.  Seeing your organization through an economic downturn will require a healthy and vibrant corporate culture. Leaders will need to continue to derive the best performance from their top employees — even when times are tough.

According to our  2008 Canadian Corporate Culture Study™, 81% of Canadian executives surveyed said that their current leadership has lead to the creation of their organization’s culture.

Leaders should be hired because they’re the right ‘fit’ with the existing values and behaviours of an organization, or, because they exhibit the traits of the evolving or desired culture of an organization. And when times get tough, the true measure of a successful leader will be how he or she handles a crisis.

Here are my top 5 recommendations for retaining top talent in an economic downturn:

1. Lead By Example: Leaders should exhibit the behaviours they expect from their own employees.
2. Be Clear and Consistent in your Communications: What aligns employees to an organization’s culture is clear and constant communication. Leaders should keep employees informed with regular communication, even if it’s just a weekly email from the CEO’s office.
3. Invest in Top Performers: The best employees are the most vulnerable in tough economic times. Leaders should use creative compensation schemes (such as short, medium and long-term incentive plans) to motivate top talent and to ensure that in difficult times, top performers have new learning opportunities.
4. Focus on the Future: Leaders should be clear about their vision for their organization and should give top performers new challenges, keeping them focused on what comes next.
5. Take Action: Sage leadership knows that downturns are an opportunity to grow market share. Leaders should act with confidence, invest in their key customers and give top performers the opportunities to lead new and exciting initiatives.

A corporate culture should be healthy enough to survive good and bad economic times. The greatest test of a leader over the next 12 months will be his or her ability to keep employees motivated and performing in a weak economy.