HCM professionals– let’s move away from dollars and cents for a minute.  Many of us just don’t have any cushioning left in our budgets.

Gas prices are soaring. The mortgage industry is in crisis. Your sales figures may not reflect it yet, but now more than ever you are keeping an eye on your bottom line. How will your company deliver on revenue and profit goals while continuing to attract and retain one of your company’s greatest assets– high performing sales people? In a contracting economy, top line growth (and consequently the earnings opportunity of sales people) is increasingly at risk. This is the first step in a vicious cycle where declining revenues result in lower compensation levels for sales people which increases the turnover of these sales people which in turn results in decreased sales.

Top sales people realize the high demand for their skills among companies seeking to reverse negative revenue trends and may present a retention - and business - risk if not attended to properly. Current research suggests that companies are increasingly taking the initiative to develop innovative solutions to meet this critical challenge. Frequently, these solutions fall outside the sales incentive plan and leverage alternative currencies that sales people value. Stockton Colt, author of The Sales Compensation Handbook says it well when he points out that “sales compensation is rarely the sole solution to problems with sales performance.”

The Human Capital Institute is pleased to bring you some creative answers in a free webcast led by Tom Knight, Partner of Axiom Consulting Group LLC. Join us for an informative and interactive hour, to examine an alternative framework that can be used to develop winning solutions that reduce the threat of sales turnover and under-performance.

According to a recent conversation with John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas– a lot.

“The country is coming to terms with permanently higher gas prices,” Challenger says.

Employees are hurting, and companies are responding by offering compressed work schedules, four-day weeks, telecommuting, gas cards and car-pooling.

These are more than short-term fixes, Challenger says. They are the beginning of a revolution in the office that will result in productivity being the central value of work, rather the number of hours logged by employees. They also dovetail with other trends like globalization and a 24-hour view of the workday that accommodates all time zones—Asia, Europe and the United States.

Tom Knight, a partner with Axiom Consulting Partners in Chicago agrees.  His recent study with Mark Masson highlights the need for companies to develop creative compensation in the face of an impending recession.  In this paper that speaks specifically to sales professionals, Knight notes “as the administrator of the sales compensation plan, HR professionals are uniquely positioned to leverage these insights to develop contingency plans. When designed and executed well, contingency plans not only optimize sales costs, but also motivate and retain sales professionals, thereby enabling the company to emerge stronger and more competitive from a down economy.”

A recent conversation I had with a senior account executive highlights the need for creative planning. Faced with a 60 mile round trip commute and little increase in 2008 base salary, he struggled with the decision to take a job closer to home.  A savvy HR department caught wind of this and set up a plan for him to telecommute 3 days a week. He stayed with the company; they averted the need to recruit a new sales star.  A smart decision all around– attract, retain, motivate. Isn’t that our mantra?

Let’s start a conversation– what is your company doing to be creative in a tough economy? What best practices can we share?