We recently sat down with 17 chief diversity officers from The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity^® and picked their brains about what's important to survival in this turbulent economy. Their full answers and their best practices for sustainability are available in the Lessons Learned From the DiversityInc Top 50 Nov./Dec. 2008 issue of DiversityInc magazine.

Click here to see our new web site, DiversityIncBestPractices.com, exclusively about diversity management.

Here's their advice on making sure your commitment to diversity makes you indispensable to your company:

No. 1: Don't be negative. Emphasize how downturns can be critical times to recruit talent.

Just like recessions can offer other bargains, the ability to snap up great people, especially those in demand, is an opportunity you should push at your company.

"We think that in a downturn, there's probably no better time to attack the diverse recruiting marketplace," says Allen Thomas, chief diversity officer and managing partner, partner services, at Deloitte LLP, No. 16 in the DiversityInc Top 50. "We say that in these next two years, it's the easiest time in the world for us to double diverse recruiting."

Even if your company is laying people off, some new positions will need to be filled. Keep your "eye on the ball to attract the best talent--and they are diverse," advises Subha Barry, managing director, head of global diversity and inclusion at Merrill Lynch & Co., No. 7 in the DiversityInc Top 50 and now being acquired by Bank of America, No. 3 on the DiversityInc Top 50.

And Rohini Anand, senior vice president and global chief diversity officer at Sodexo, No. 12 on the DiversityInc Top 50, urges people to get their companies branded as diversity leaders by partnering with grassroots organizations and gaining DiversityInc Top 50 recognition because that's an essential way to find and reach talent.

No. 2: Don't let your panic over the economy get in the way of being truly innovative and creative.

At times like this, diverse perspectives--and solutions--are all the more valued. "We're looking for innovators. The key is that you've got to have those diverse perspectives to drive the innovation," says Robert Crumpton, director of diversity at Monsanto Co., No. 25 in the DiversityInc Top 50.

No. 3: If you are in a management position, make sure your best and brightest aren't the ones leaving and that they know the diversity commitment is long-term.

"When we want to hold on to our very best talent, this is the very time at which they are being pushed by the competition and are likely to make life decisions about whether the stress is worth staying on in the industry or not," says Barry, whose industry certainly hasn't been a stable one. "The ability for us to create the right environment, especially for our diverse talent, easily spills over to the broader population. This is an indication that efforts in the diversity space have a much broader ripple effect within the organization."

If you work for a progressive company with a long history as a diversity leader, make sure your key people understand that no matter what happens, diversity remains a core value and business driver.

"You have people that have been through a rough time and they have confidence in the leadership's ability to look at the horizons and make adjustments early on," says Jimmie Paschall, global diversity officer and senior vice president, external affairs, at Marriott International, No. 11 in the DiversityInc Top 50. "So people are willing to hang with you during the tough times, even if it causes pain on some level. We're focused on trying to keep the best of the talent that we have."

It's a clear profit-and-loss issue in which you, as a manager, can demonstrate your value. Susan Hamilton, assistant vice president of diversity/HR leadership for CSX, No. 47 in the DiversityInc Top 50, estimates it costs up to $40,000 to lose a valued employee, and since her company has dramatically changed the composition of its work-force demographics to remain relevant to its customers, she sure isn't going to let people she needs go easily. "We've recruited them, hired and trained them, on-boarded them, we oriented them. We will have a sunken crop if we lose those people," she says.

No. 4: Use diversity to make new connections to your customers.

The demographics of this country are changing dramatically, with white people projected to be the minority by 2042. Even beyond that, people--especially younger people--want a work force that is inclusive of everyone regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, orientation or disability. By relating to the evolving marketplace and devising new customer strategies, you can make yourself invaluable.

"The customers in any part of our business--entertainment services, wireless services--are incredibly diverse and are expecting diverse responses from us," says Magda Yrizarry, vice president of workplace culture, diversity and compliance in corporate human resources at Verizon Communications, No. 1 in the DiversityInc Top 50.

"Customization has never been greater, so our customers do not want one-size-fits-all approaches. Diversity becomes increasingly important to understand a whole different set of norms, lifestyles and needs."

This goes for business-to-business companies as well. "Increasingly, clients are talking and asking for both supplier diversity and work-force diversity, and not about what your policies are and what you're doing, but about diverse teams--but it's not just that they want a diverse team, they want the best teams at the end of the day, and the best teams are diverse, especially in a global environment," says Allan Mark, America's director, diversity strategy and involvement at Ernst & Young, No. 17 in the DiversityInc Top 50.

No. 5: Join--and lead--an employee-resource group.

The increasing importance of these groups--as key to business growth and as enablers of talent development--cannot be overestimated. For a three-part series on how critical they are and the hottest trends in employee-resource groups, click here.

The Coca-Cola Co., No. 2 in the DiversityInc Top 50, now asks its employee-resource groups to put together an annual business plan, which the group members present personally to the president of North American operations every year. Steve Bucherati, chief diversity officer at Coca-Cola, tells us how the Latino employee-resource group helped launch an energy drink aimed primarily at Latinos by asking them to help position the product.

Bucherati says, "They went with our sales force out into the community to … 'mom-and-pop' customers, the stores out there that are Latino-owned, and they helped explain the value proposition of the product, how you should merchandise it in the store. It is now a year and a half later and we are 30 percent above expectations in our energy category, and all the stores bought other Coke products as well. We got a lift in all of our business, and it's a classic example of how the resource groups help."