Many employees of small businesses are grateful to have a job, even as salaries are frozen or cut and they’re asked to take on more responsibility. Company owners shouldn’t take those good attitudes for granted – they need to show workers some loyalty so staffers don’t jump ship when the economy gets stronger.

“This is a crucial time,” said Leigh Branham, owner of Keeping The People Inc., a human resources consulting firm. “Employees are testing you to see how loyal you are to them, to decide if they’re going to stay.”

Beverly Kaye, an employee retention consultant, warned that owners who don’t show loyalty to their workers could see talented staffers leave even before the recovery.

“In this economy, it’s a gigantic non-truth that no one’s hiring,” Kaye said. “Good people have options.”

Showing workers you’re loyal is critical when they’re making sacrifices to help your business weather the recession. HR professionals say that means implementing painful staff and salary cuts in a sensitive way. Imposing such changes without any discussion will create resentment, not loyalty.

“Don’t make the decisions from on high,” Branham said.

Branham suggests, for example, asking employees if they’re willing to take pay cuts to save jobs. That way, “there’s a sense of ownership in what needs to be done,” he said.

Many HR consultants also advocate letting workers know how the company is doing. Staffers may not need to know the smallest details of the firm’s finances, but the boss should let everyone know what challenges it faces. That not only makes for a more open atmosphere, it will put employees in a better position to help the company.

Many companies are holding meetings or forums in which the boss fields questions from workers, Branham said. “You win so much respect when you do that.”

Kaye has held group meetings when she had to break bad news to her own employees.

“We downsized from 30 full-time people to 21 full-time, and we cut people’s salaries by 10 percent,” she said. “Every time we had to lay someone off, we had an all-hands meeting and an all-hands [conference] call. I told everyone what was happening.”