Few industries are immune to the effects of the global recession and few anticipated the breadth and depth of the economic crisis. Unprepared, many companies in trouble reacted from the gut, cutting high-paid employees first and realizing too late their competitive advantage—their top talent—had walked out the door.

Circuit City learned the hard way that knee-jerk reactions about cutting staff can be fatal. When online competitors swarmed into the electronics market and revenue began to fall, Circuit City laid off experienced salespeople. That produced a one-time savings but eliminated the company’s distinctive value—salespeople who knew the products well. In November 2008, Circuit City filed for bankruptcy.

This is just one example of a company that reacted in old ways to new dangers. But it highlights a significant fact about corporate survival in this recession: Companies must safeguard and develop their critical talent if they want to weather the crisis and prosper in the turnaround. Old ways of thinking about employees as expendable expenses must go.

Companies that have been shaken but not brought down by the economic crisis are those that already understood the value of their human capital. A forthcoming study by the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) and the Institute for Corporate Productivity (I4cp) “Learning in a Down Economy” shows that 38% of companies surveyed are placing more emphasis on learning during this economic downturn. When the time came for belt tightening, they already knew what capabilities they needed to be more competitive, innovative and customer-focused. And they had processes in place to find, hire, assign and keep the talent they needed most.

These companies responded quickly and leveraged technology to design, deliver and account for employee learning and development. They didn’t hesitate to move training out of the classroom and to pare training content down to the essentials to achieve more efficiency and effectiveness. They ensured that every training and development program, however small, supported a business goal in some way—or it didn’t survive.

One fact is certain: Old ways of doing things are not coming back. Following are some actions recommended by ASTD to help organizations remain competitive during the economic crisis and position themselves for growth in the turnaround.

1.Scarce resources: How can you accomplish more with less?

The differentiator for organizations is no longer systems and processes. Senior executives agree that people are THE differential advantage for organizations. With scarce resources—including tighter budgets and reduced staff—workplace learning and performance professionals must concentrate on developing employees.

Recommended action: Old ways of thinking are outdated. Demonstrate learning’s effect on developing talent in your organization by ensuring there are processes in place to find, hire and keep key talent.

2.Leaders who don’t understand the value of training and development in a knowledge economy cut budgets for programs that contribute to overall performance.

The ASTD-I4cp study showed that companies that put a stronger emphasis on learning during the economic crisis had better market performance. Departments that can show that learning directly impacts corporate performance will survive the economic downturn.

Recommended action: Make sure that every learning program supports a goal and has metrics to measure value and performance.

3.Competitive advantage: How do you develop employees to have the skills to maximize your core business strengths?

Are you familiar with your company’s key competitors and their strengths? What is your company’s competitive advantage—do employees have the skills and competencies to successfully support that business strategy? Listen carefully to key clients, and focus on delivering superior service and products to your customers.

Recommended action: Be clear about the organization’s source of competition and concentrate on ways to leverage your company’s key strategic drivers.

4.Risks: The world becomes more risk-averse every day. How do you create a culture that encourages innovation?

Edwards LifeSciences, a heart valve supplier, changed its culture from a blame culture that created risk-aversion to an ownership culture that puts company stock in the hands of the employees. “We tell employees to treat the company like they own it, not like they work there,” said chairman and CEO Michael Mussallem. “If we want to be innovative, we need to study what makes a company innovative. We felt that if we were going to have a learning culture, we needed to create an environment for really new and fresh minds.” The culture at Edwards LifeSciences recognizes and celebrates innovative ideas as they happen, and does not punish employees for trying and failing.

Recommended action: Give people time and permission for innovation. Create a culture that allows for failure and applies the innovative ideas back into the business.

5.Efficient learning: How do you train the greatest number of people in the fastest and most efficient way?

During the 2001 recession, e-learning took off. It has continued to grow at a steady pace because it is a more efficient form of training and enables continual access and reuse of content.

Recommended action: Leverage more technology-based learning applications—webinars, simulations and virtual world—to reach more employees and increase learning hours per employee.