(From UNC Kenan-Flagler) -- For the past few years now, workers lucky enough to have a job hunkered down to ride out the economic storm. They did more with less and often had to accept salary freezes, time off without pay, or cutbacks in hours in exchange for continued employment. Uncertain about how long the recession would last and not willing to be a victim of "last one in, first one out," they also stopped looking for that next great job at a competitor down the street. As a result, employee retention rates soared and not surprisingly, employee engagement suffered.

According to a 2010 Hewitt survey of companies from around the world, half of the organizations responding said they had experienced significant drops in employee engagement, the largest decline Hewitt has seen in more than 15 years of researching the metric.

Filmmaker, comedian and well-known neurotic Woody Allen once said: "Eighty percent of success is showing up." This may have been true thirty years ago, but today, it no longer applies. In our internationally competitive business environment, employers need dedicated employees fully committed to the success of their organizations.

Read the whitepaper.