Over the last year the economic downturn has caused many employees to experience a high degree of uncertainty in their careers. And turmoil at work has left them with the sense that their employers don't care about them. A recent survey of 50,000 employees by the Corporate Leadership Council (CLC), a program of the Corporate Executive Board, indicates that 42 percent of employees don't believe their employer looks out for their best interests.

The downturn has fundamentally changed the employer-employee relationship for the worse. Layoffs, compensation cuts, rapidly contracting career opportunities, and dissolved pensions and retirement plans are only a few examples of what underlies the breakdown in the employment contract. Not surprisingly, employee engagement has suffered: The number of employees putting forth the highest levels of effort on the job has decreased by 50 percent since 2007, according to CEB research.

This presents organizations with a unique challenge — and opportunity: how to ensure that the best employees don't leave when the job market improves. But more pressing is that high-potential employees, who do have job opportunities at other organizations, are twice as likely to be looking for a job at another company right now, compared to the broader work force. The employer-employee relationship is defined by the benefit(s) each receives from the employment contract. For the employee, this employment value proposition (EVP) is about the rewards, opportunities, and experience gained by working for a particular employer. Components of the EVP lost value with the economic downturn and in turn drove down employees' engagement at work. Improving engagement and preventing employee departure when the job market expands means rebuilding the value part of the EVP.