In healthy economic times, it's easy to engage employees. There's much to celebrate: improved earnings, restoration of bonus compensation and greater job stability. Doling out rich rewards to high-achieving teams comes naturally when all goes well. The collective spirit is cheery. Employees feel they're part of something special. Their motivation level soars.

Unfortunately, over the past four years, economic pressures have left many companies—and their workforces—in a less festive mood. Despite signs of a slow but steady global recovery, many employers continue to struggle with shaky cost models and labor concerns.

In this challenging environment, managers often find themselves under the gun to produce exceptional results with limited resources. At the same time, repeated rounds of layoffs and furloughs squeeze employees to do more for less. It's hardly an ideal scenario for galvanizing employees to do their best and feel good doing it. Just as engaging employees is a breeze during economic booms, disengagement becomes a creeping menace during economic busts. People chafe when asked to work harder and produce greater output for the same or less compensation. What's more, they may feel betrayed by bosses who claim to value their subordinates but who wind up breaching promises, ignoring employee input and scaling back pay and perks.

A disengaged workforce still shows up, of course. But rather than take pride in goal attainment, disgruntled individuals stew in anger, cynicism and resentment. Their flagging morale, lower productivity and increasingly vocal resistance to change can poison the organizational culture and fuel a downhill spiral that's tough to reverse. As simmering discontent spreads, serious problems emerge. Employees are more apt to file discrimination or harassment lawsuits, violate company policies and even commit acts of sabotage such as stealing intellectual property.

But here's the good news: disengagement is not an inevitable by-product of an economic downturn. By strengthening the culture, unclogging communication channels and increasing employee involvement in decision making, managers can bring teams together. "It's important to create a vision for the organization's future and its purpose," says Kathryn Hayley, chief executive officer, Americas, Aon Hewitt Consulting. "You want employees excited about the purpose of their work."

Customize your engagement strategy

Most managers appreciate the value of an energized, committed workforce. In Aon Hewitt's 2011 Talent Survey, employee engagement ranked as the third biggest concern of employers, behind only retention of key talent and execution of business strategy. In the survey, 45 percent of employers didn't believe their employees were focused on their jobs, 43 percent felt their employees were not fully immersed in their work and 40 percent did not believe employees were driven to do what their jobs required.

To raise the engagement level, avoid a one-size-fits-all approach when managing people. Just as enlightened companies tailor their products and services to solve different customers' problems, the best employers customize their internal programs to appeal to diverse employees. One of the distinguishing characteristics of admired leaders is their willingness to understand each worker's perspective and recognize variations in individual attitudes, aspirations and motivation. Building rapport with each colleague lays the foundation for engagement.

The next step is helping team members tie the organizational vision to their daily jobs while investing in their professional development. "Make your employees more marketable so that they're always growing," Hayley says. "Find training for them, expand their capabilities and let them take some risks in tackling new projects. Put a safety net in place if they struggle, but give them the chance to do more and learn more."

To invest in the professional development of promising up-and-comers, Aon launched its Accelerate Program about four years ago. Stephen Cross, chief executive officer, Aon Global Risk Consulting, works with other senior executives to select four teams of five or six people each. An executive sponsors each team and coaches participants as they devote three to four months grappling with a business challenge such as conducting client-centered research or developing a new product.