Developing and Retaining Your Top Talent During Uncertain Times

One of the most demanding challenges for companies is developing and retaining their top talent, and it is even more challenging in the doldrums of a VUCA business environment.  

VUCA is an acronym that stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity. It describes a situation or time characterized by rapid change, unpredictability, intricate interdependencies, and unclear realities. Clearly, given the political, economic, and global changes over the last year, organizations are facing these conditions and are struggling to adapt their business models.  

With unknowns around tariffs, interest rates, international trade, and government policies, most companies have had to reduce their budgets across the board, and this in turn has severely impacted the engagement of employees. There are freezes on headcount and so teams are having to do more work with fewer resources.  Work/Life balance is now challenged as employees are having to put in more hours every week and scramble to achieve goals and meet deadlines that were originally established for a fully staffed team. For employees, this pattern is increasingly concerning.  

As noted on CNN, surveys show that employees are feeling abandoned; when answering the question around whether their companies care about them:

In February of 2025: 72% said yes

In July of 2025, only 37% said yes. 

• There has been a 35% drop in 6 months

Compounding the work/life imbalance of employees is the reduction and/or freeze on professional development budgets. Companies have stopped investing in leadership and management development programs. Traditional curricula for employees have been either eliminated or pushed out to some future point in time. 

Even individual development plans are falling to the wayside as business goals are the singular focus of management.  Employees are on their own to develop themselves and their careers and given increased workloads, they do not have the bandwidth to focus on anything except their next deliverable.  

Over time, as demonstrated by dropping employee engagement survey scores over the course of 2025, employees are losing faith and trust in their organization. They no longer believe that their company is invested in their professional growth or career. This then shows up in a whole array of negative consequences.

• Employee productivity is declining
• Attrition rates are rising
• Attraction of new candidates is plummeting
• Glassdoor, which always captures the honest perspectives of employees, is revealing the companies with cultures that do not demonstrate care for its employees

So, the question becomes, what can organizations do to address this dilemma of addressing developing and retaining employees when they are navigating the impact of such a painful VUCA environment?

Talent-Retaining Measures for Organizations

Career Conversations

As a starting point, one of the most powerful strategies a company can employ is to ensure managers are having career development conversations with their direct reports. By leaders demonstrating interest in and commitment to the future of their employees, they are addressing one of the most significant factors in engagement; employees always want to know if they have the opportunity to grow their career within the organization.  

Managers can enable the success of career conversations by exploring a series of questions:

• At the peak of your career, what role would you like to have?
• In 5 years, 3 years, and 1 year what role would you like to have?
• What do you believe are your next best roles in the organization?
• What skills, knowledge, and experience do you believe you need to be ready for your next best role?
• How can I help you to achieve your career goals?

By exploring the desired arc of a direct report’s career and offering their support, managers can make a strategic difference in how their employees experience the organization. Even if they cannot make notable investments in development, their stated interest and commitment of time speaks volumes.

Some employees may not have answers to the questions above, and that is to be expected. Very few individuals have a clear line of sight around where and how they would like their career to evolve.  

In those cases where there is uncertainty, a manager can suggest potential roles and then introduce their direct report to individuals already in the role. Their direct can meet with them and ask them to describe their role and what they did to enable their candidacy for that role.  With that context, a direct can begin to imagine if that opportunity is something they would like to pursue.

These types of conversations cost nothing, but over time, they can be an invaluable engagement and retention tool for the organization. They provide for the employee the foundational belief that the company cares about them, their professional development, and their career. And with that belief, an employee is more likely to stay with the company and contribute over the long term to its future.

Individual Development Plans

A stronger engagement signal to an employee by a manager is to partner with them on an individual development plan (IDP). Again, this is a no cost strategy that can make a very significant and lasting impact.  

To start, a manager meets with their direct report and determines what area of strength and/or area of weakness, if developed, will make the most difference in their performance.  What skills, knowledge, or behaviors will provide the most return on investment? Typically, a successful IDP will focus on just 1-2 development areas.

A great plan will carefully define the area of development which is typically a technical/functional competency or a leadership competency such as influence, executive presence, or strategic thinking. Then the plan will establish a gap (what keeps the employee from being a perfect 10 in that competency?) and an objective (what will be different in 6-8 months?)

Once these areas are established a highly successful plan will include 15-20 tactics or strategies to help develop the employee. (See sample.)  Most of these will be on the job; some will be relationship based (having a mentor or peer coach); and some will include education opportunities (classes, books, articles, Ted Talks, etc.)  

The key for the manager is to ensure that the activities are diverse, observable, and disciplined. Great development is like getting in shape–the more often an employee can make a habit of practicing a new skill, the more likely they will see a difference in their performance.

Once the IDP is documented a manager can and should make a regular practice of meeting with their direct to monitor progress. As well, they should make it clear that progress against the direct’s IDP will be part of their end of year evaluation–it will make a difference in their rating and ultimately their compensation. 

These steps combined will signal in no uncertain terms that the organization and the manager are dedicated to their employees, their professional development, and their careers. By making development an accountability and a disciplined habit, the manager will create a culture of care and concern and a sense of belonging and engagement for his team.

Foundational Leadership Development

To support companywide development with a more visible and high impact strategy, great companies provide a foundational leadership curriculum. It doesn’t have to be elaborate or expensive. It simply needs to provide the most essential skills for people leaders so that they can successfully manage the performance and engagement of their teams.  

 The core skills typically encompass the following:

• Planning Performance
• Coaching Performance
• Evaluating Performance
• Developing Talent

With investment in these four modules the company can ensure that their people leaders can create a culture that addresses the most essential needs of employees. First and foremost, it lets leaders and employees know that the company cares about the successful management of people. As important it communicates to people managers that the organization will invest in their leadership development; they will be provided with the skills, knowledge, and tools to succeed in their roles and to accelerate their readiness for more complex roles in the organization.

Summary

Combining the strategies of career discussions, individual development plans, and a foundational leadership curriculum can and will have an immense impact upon a company during VUCA times. Amidst the uncertainty and ambiguity of the business environment, the company will be establishing and communicating their values around the importance of their employees and the investment in their professional growth. It will enable employees to see the value of being a part of the organization and growing their career within the organization. Ultimately, it will build a supportive culture which will serve to reassure employees about their value to the organization and their personal futures with the organization.

IDP Example:

The Leadership Development and Action Plan Worksheet is a tool that will complement your Personal Leadership Development and Action Plan.  It is intened to create a very precise understanding of the area you wish to develop and to provide comprehensive, disciplined and specific activities that enable you to achieve your development goals.  Note that 70% of your activities should be job-based or experiential; 20% should leverage relationships; only 10% should tap into education, readings, or training.

Development Area 1: Identify skill or knowledge to be developed.

Analyzing the Gap: Current assessment of your skill/behavioral or knowledge areas; be specific about the gap and how it shows up.

Goal:  What do you intend to accomplish in this development area and how will you know that you improved in this area?  Make your goal SMART.