A key problem in this economic climate is working out how to keep your staff motivated and engaged. That's particularly hard at a time like this when money is scarce. It's a point examined in this piece here. Still, while the piece points out that companies are recognizing it as problem, it doesn't exactly tell us what they can do.

Business leaders here say the key is more up-front communication. But it needs more than that. As I point out in my piece here, smart companies are putting in new reward systems, that include employees scoring points to cash in later on, or giving them special jobs or more flexibility.

The worrying part, as The Economist pointed out earlier this year, is that engagement schemes are not recession proof. And that, it says, could be a problem for business down the track. The Economist says: "It might be tempting to dismiss the whole question of employee motivation as a distraction given the difficulties facing most businesses. Yet declines in engagement levels should set alarm bells ringing in boardrooms because there is some evidence that firms with highly engaged workforces tend to outperform stragglers."

So with more companies cutting costs, and cutting down on engagement strategies, we can expect a massive fallout and lots of pissed off employees.