Some cooling off of China’s economy has shaken confidence around the region, leading to some uncertainty in the workplace among long-time employees who thought they knew where they were headed. This has also created an unfortunate first impression for people entering the workforce now, who are hearing “doom and gloom” stories about entire industries slowing their hiring and also retrenching workers. While the reality, based on unemployment figures, may not be as bad as they fear, perception often becomes reality, and so your employees’ expectations are not the same as they would have been 5 years ago. You need to understand what they are thinking, and figure out what you can do to keep them focused on doing the best work possible.

For some, their expectations about their career plans have been dramatically altered. Whereas before they might have thought they had job security, for many that has gone out the window. If your company has been able to avoid retrenchments, that’s great, but if you have already had to downsize then the effect of all this uncertainty will be even stronger. Your employees are more likely to be keeping an eye out for new opportunities elsewhere as a hedge against sudden downsizing by you, and they may even be doing freelance work on the side so as to have some options in case things go wrong in their professional lives. What should you do to keep them focused on doing great work for you?

First you might reassess your retention programs to address your current concerns. Consider prioritizing your efforts based on the value of a potential role and the difficulty you will face if you have to fill it. Use that, and an assessment of your employees’ talents, to figure out who you should focus on retaining, and who can leave without causing much harm to the organization. You don’t necessarily want to keep everyone, and chances are you do not have the time or resources to try to retain everyone, so figure out where to put your energy. Then identify the retention factors — compensation, professional development, work-life balance, etc — that are most important to the people whom you most want to keep.

Look at how you could restructure your workforce to function well in a highly transient environment with regular personnel changes. Do your people have the skills, and the willingness, to jump in and cover a requirement when the person who was doing it suddenly leaves? One hotel manager we worked with has his back-office staff trained and ready to help with some guest-facing tasks when a surge is needed; do you have folks who can cover gaps on demand? If employees are leaving regularly, or if you are likely to face downsizing in the future, the last thing you want to do is let your important value-adding efforts suffer.

As you look at your workforce, ask yourself if adopting a “free agent” approach to some of your work might be helpful. Rather than going through all the administrative work of hiring, onboarding, and offboarding employees, would it make sense to simply contract with freelancers for some work as needed rather than maintaining a large workforce? If you are facing ups and downs in your industry, you might not need people all the time, and you can save yourself some layoffs and reduce uncertainty for your remaining employees if you bring on others only as needed.

Try building a knowledge management capability that captures your employees’ lessons learned as they go along, rather than waiting until someone is leaving to build a “transition file.” Identify and make notes of effective practices as they happen. Make sure your customer tracking system has more than just names and contact info, but also has notes about each client. Have a shared data space so Person A can access all the work Person B was doing when B takes another offer. Remember, when someone gives you two weeks’ notice, they have plenty of things to finish, and putting together effective notes for their replacement may not be at the top of their list. And if they are being retrenched, the last thing they will care about is helping you get ready for the future.

If you have employees who choose to leave, don’t get upset and burn that bridge. For one thing, if they are staying in your industry, there is a good chance they will boomerang back to you again, with someone else paying for their development in the meantime. Make use of your alumni, don’t just cast them aside because they choose to leave. We have a seminar that helps you manage employee departures effectively, in a way that is good for you, good for them, and good for the team that is still with you.

As your employees’ career expectations have changed you may want to retool your succession planning program if you still want to move some of your best performers into leadership positions down the road. If they do not see a clear path to future opportunities with you, they may not be as driven to develop themselves and advance into new roles. Put your top talent onto a succession plan before someone makes them a better offer. Remember, a succession plan that is only in your head, not on paper, is not a plan, it’s just an idea.

Your employees’ perceptions of their professional lives have probably changed in the last few years, and for those coming into the workforce now, they may be expecting a lot of uncertainty. As a leader, you have an opportunity to provide some stability, and you also have an obligation to navigate your organization through tricky times. You may need to change your approach to managing your talent in order to match their new view of the world.