Navigating the storm: ways to steer your company to safety during economic turbulence.

• Author: Coon, John
• Position: Lessons Learned

Economic downturn. Those two words can send a shiver down the spine of any company executive. Like it or not, though, all companies must deal with the fallout from such a situation at some point in time. Problems like layoffs and hiring freezes are a part of reality in many industries.

How a company navigates tough times can directly impact its ability to generate success at some point again down the road. Smart businesses find a way to take a negative situation and strengthen both employee morale and the company's culture.

"It's not just about managing the chaos during the tough times," says Aaron Call, vice president of sales and operations for G&A Partners. "What they're really doing is laying a foundation for what their company is going to look like going forward."

For more than two decades, professional employer organization G&A Partners has worked to help businesses navigate economic downturns and come out better on the other side. Here, the firm shares some of its lessons learned from the trenches.

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Invite collaboration

One thing G&A Partners has learned along the way is that communication plays a valuable role in keeping morale strong in tough times. Business owners who are transparent about what is going on can make employees feel less anxiety about their own future.

But the communication should go beyond transparency to actively involving employees in decision making. When employees can take an active role in improving things, it will create a dynamic culture in a company that will leave it stronger after an economic downturn has passed.

"Communication isn't always just about the senior executive team being open and honest about what's going on," Call says. "That's very important. But it's also soliciting feedback from those who are left to do the work and to interact with clients and customers and make sure they feel like their voice is heard. They often have very good ideas and if you don't ask for them--if you don't solicit those ideas--often times, those opportunities are missed."

One G&A client in the energy industry was forced to downsize significantly over the past year because of a drop in the price of oil and other related issues. This meant cutting two-thirds of the company's existing workforce. To boost morale for employees that remained, the company facilitated internal discussion on how to solve issues behind the layoffs.

It helped the client weather the storm with negligible voluntary turnover...