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I think that volunteering or interest in social responsibility is a big thing among 20-somethings. It behooves companies trying to motivate these people to pay attention to the trend. You can't fake it. But it's a trend that's easy to tap into.

Engagement is likely to be continue to be a buzz word in 2010. Jon Gordon, author, The Shark and the Goldfish: Positive Ways to Thrive During Waves of Change offers nine leadership strategies to re-energize a burned out/stressed out workforce. Here are five of them.

1. Focus on people, not numbers. Place your attention on employees and on the process. After all, numbers are just measurements and indicators of how well your people are executing.

2. Model good behavior. Whatever you expect from your people, you must also expect from your senior leadership.

3. Practice positive leadership. Remain purposeful in the face of adversity. While it's important to acknowledge the obstacles your organization is facing, don't dwell on them in meetings or individual conversations, and don't bring up bad news before you've pointed out one or two things that are going well.

4. Fill the void. Personally meet with your employees and continually communicate, communicate, communicate. You must be seen and heard, and you must also hear and see. If you always fill the void with positive communication, then negativity and fear can't breed and grow.

5. Focus on small wins. Always place your attention on those little, ordinary, non-spectacular "wins" that add up to big success. When you focus on small wins, you gain the confidence to go after and create big wins.

Workplace futurist and CEO of Employers of Choice, Inc., offers some advice about upping employee satifaction and engagement...

1. Set goals where leaders agree to give of themselves when the goals are met. For example, one owner of a printing firm in Ohio dressed up in a bunny suit and fixed breakfast for his staff when they reached their stretch goal.

2. Insist your people give you their best ideas, then listen, really listen to their suggestions.

3. Conduct a re-orientation for your long-tenured employees, and conduct "stay interviews" with everyone. Interview each of your people annually to find out what they're really thinking.

4. Schedule a brainstorming session with your people to develop a list of non-financial rewards that you can use to recognize and reward people without spending any money.

With all the talk of the talent poaching that is just around the corner, if not already starting to happen, The Corporate Executive Board offers advice on how to keep high performers in their seat by focusing on the top five drivers of engagement identified by the Corporate Leadership Council:

1. connection between work and organizational strategy;

2. importance of job to organization success;

3. understanding of how to complete work projects;

4. internal communication;

5. manager demonstration of commitment to diversity

I've just seen some research showing that employees really want to make a contribution to their companies, they want to make suggestions, they want their voices to be heard. But employers aren't listening, so they're missing out on an important opportunity. Seems to be especially important for Gen X and Yers.

Today's Tip of the Day from Harvard Business Review says the way to motivate people is to participate in their stories.

Motivating employees to higher levels of performance is a challenge for most leaders. Often people are motivated to do things simply because it feeds into the story they tell themselves.

For example, your star performer regularly exceeds your expectations because she tells herself that she is the kind of person who impresses others, or a team member triple checks a document because he is the kind of person who doesn't make mistakes.

You can fuel internal motivation by understanding and supporting these stories. First take notice of what kind of person your employee wants to be. Then articulate how what you need done fits into or even enhances that image.