So should we hang our hats on the smallest job loss since the recession began over a year ago? Prudence would say otherwise, if one were to question the exclusion of the “discouraged” worker from the unemployment statistics. Add an additional 53,000 discouraged workers, and the modest gain in temporary employment is completely erased.

I encourage you to read the tea leaves of the BLS report with an appropriate level of pragmatism. The proper response isn’t to claim victory or bemoan the continued defeat of recession. Rather, act according to the realities on economic grounds.

Those realities tell us that things are not as terrible as they were this time last year, but it’s still a very difficult economic environment to grow our businesses. Therefore, how should we strategically plan our workforce to achieve success with near and long term objectives?

I suggest a continued investment in operational efficiencies that will allow your organization to develop a nimble and flexible workforce. Not a workforce that merely helps to ride out the economic storm, but one that will provide immediate access to talent on demand that will result in greater control over workforce levels and cost. To that end, here are my top three steps for taking a pragmatic approach to BLS tea leaf reading:

1. Talent Requisitioning Confidence Assessment: Evaluate every channel in your organization for sourcing talent. Determine the level of confidence to provide expeditious access to the right talent at the right time for the right investment. Uncover gaps between varying talent sourcing strategies to eliminate redundancy and capitalize on best practices that are potentially isolated.
2. Succession Planning and Recruitment Reconciliation: Succession plans might seem like a luxury during such difficult times, but it is quite the opposite. It’s likely you have had reductions in force (RIFs), and are asking more of your talent than you ever have before. This naturally increases the risk of turnover at the first sign of an uptick. This exercise is one that requires evaluation of current succession plans, ensuring that the plan is populated with named successors, and most importantly, that it is reconciled against the aforementioned sourcing strategies. We can confirm the notion that temporary staff usage precedes an increase in traditional employment. Therefore, it is essential that your firm drive value from that reality. Update succession plans to include targeted transition of temporary workers to permanent employees.
3. Model Multiple Talent Level Scenarios: A collaborative effort between the business, human resources, and sourcing must be made to model at least three potential workforce plans against anticipated full time equivalents. Creating “best-case,” “worst-case,” and “likely-to-happen” scenarios might be the best approach. Each segment of the business should identify the type of employee to satisfy full-time equivalent (FTE) requirements, and develop sourcing and on-boarding strategies that will help achieve the defined mix.

Pragmatism is rewarded with good results. So leave the reading of tea leaves to the pros, and place a focus on the workforce plan that factors in the realities of a continued difficult economic period.