What if all your good employees suddenly walked off the job, not because of a "strike," but because they were fed up with having to do more with less and not getting paid for it.   Try to imagine how that would impact your business operations.  What would happen to your customers?  How would your business survive?

Employee salaries in most U.S. companies have remained flat over the last 35 years, meaning there have been few "cost of living" raises significant enough to keep up with inflation.  Up until 1975, writes University of Massachusetts at Amherst economics professor Dr. Richard Wolff, salaries rose relative to inflation as did company profits.  However, around 1975 that all changed.  None or very few raises to employees became the norm, yet company profits continued to soar.  With employee salaries being flat companies naturally made bigger profits.

Prior to 1975, Americans were used to seeing their standard of living increase each year along with their paychecks. However, post 1975 found them scrambling for another way to pay for that same standard of living-thus enter the credit card.  Use of credit has led to all sorts of problems for the American people and in part, to the demise of the economy in 2009.  Consumers could maintain or increase their standard of living on the buy now, pay later method.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against companies making a profit because after all, that's what Watson Training & Development does-help companies make money.   But with employees making less and less, it is taking its toll not only on employees, but on companies as well.  For example, as I've written numerous times, only 26% of employees are fully engaged and motivated to do their best, while 55% are disengaged-doing only enough to keep from getting fired. The remaining19%, who are the actively disengaged, are so unhappy they are spreading discontent throughout the workplace like a poison spilling all over the company.

But back to my original question:  what if all your employees got so fed up with having to do more while getting paid less, plus having to deal with the stress of credit card debt, decided to walk?  What would your company do then? Where would you find replacements?  Who would take care of your customers?

According to Ed Michael's in his book, The War for Talent, over the next 10 years the demand for employees worldwide will rise by 33%, but there will be a 15% drop in supply.  This is due to those workers belonging to the "baby boomer" era retiring, and those following being fewer in number.  This war for talent has yet to begin but when the economy improves, employees will have a stronger incentive to walk out to look for a job that pays more and where they will have an easier workload.

According to research by Workforce Magazine, over the next 10 years, employees will actually be in more demand than customers, and talent management will become the prime focus of CEO's.

So, with salaries not going up, with fewer and fewer employees being engaged, and with the probability of employees leaving when the economy improves, what is a company to do?

The first thing a company must do to meet these upcoming challenges is train their managers and supervisors in how to engage their workforce, and how to create a workplace climate so that employees don't want to leave for a "better" job.  Unfortunately, most companies cut their training budgets during an economic slowdown as a way to save money.  This is the last thing a company should do.

In fact, some companies go against the grain all together and actually increase their training budgets during a recession. For example, the Saskatoon Health Region, a hospital system in western Canada, says it is not planning to cut a training program that targets employees with leadership potential.  They have increased their training budget with the expectation that better leaders will help the company rebound quicker as the recession improves.  And that has been the case historically.

Leaders who learn how to coach their employees and nurture a collaborative work environment, especially in a down economy, reap many dividends-not only a more engaged workforce, but greater profitability.  Given those benefits, it makes sense to use training as a strategic way of dealing with a poor economy.

So you might try this exercise:  ask yourself some "what if" questions like "what if our employee engagement went up by 30%" or "what if I didn't have to push my employees so hard just to get the job done" or "what if I really started to enjoy" my work again?" That can all happen with the right management training, even during tough times.