Human resource executives and managers who have to deal increasingly more often with cost-cutting decisions, especially as far as personnel policies are concerned, have to always keep retaining of top performers in mind, i.e. of those people who, if not motivated and included in the company's strategy, can always find a job elsewhere, even in a labour market that offers very few jobs.

"The crisis should be for leaders as water for the fish. It is exactly their role to lead the organisation through the crisis. It should be them to focus on effective communication to people, capitalise on the turmoil in the job market to upgrade their organisation's level of talent and keep their most valuable players," believes Martin Macha, the partner in charge of the Health & Benefits division in Eastern Europe and the Middle East of giant Mercer, one of the biggest HR consulting companies in the world.

With 20 years' experience in research and consulting, Macha is the special guest of the conference organised by ZF on March 25th, "The DNA of people you need to keep in the company in order to weather the crisis. How will companies start to create jobs?" where he will talk about the challenges of managing human capital in 2010.

Human resource executives and managers who have to deal increasingly more often with cost-cutting decisions, especially as far as personnel policies are concerned, have to always keep retaining of top performers in mind, i.e. of those people who, if not motivated and included in the company's strategy, can always find a job elsewhere, even in a labour market that offers very few jobs.

"The crisis should be for leaders as water for the fish. It is exactly their role to lead the organisation through the crisis. It should be them to focus on effective communication to people, capitalise on the turmoil in the job market to upgrade th