How companies can avoid cutting good workers: keep staffs lean.

• Author: Cote, Mike
• Position: LABOR

The good news: Employers in the post-recessionary economy want to avoid having to lay off good workers when times get tough. The bad news: They're going to hire fewer people.

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"Many of us do not want to go back to the pain that existed throughout the majority of the recession where you have to turn good people out," says Mark Stelzner of Inflexion Advisors, a human-resources consulting firm based in San Francisco. "At the beginning of the recession, you can look at the lowest 5 percent of performers and cast those folks out, which is the standard churn in most organizations. But when you get to another 5 percent, it becomes whimsical and very subjective."

Stelzner will be the keynote speaker at the Colorado Council of the Society of Human Resource Management's annual conference Sept. 28-30 at the Keystone Resort Center. Employment issues in these less-than-boom times will be among the topics he'll address.

"If you survived the layoffs, sometimes you look...