There are certain things that employers can control during an economic downturn, and some  things they cannot. In her book One Foot Out the Door, Judith Bardwick discusses them both.

On the one hand, I’m not sure that companies can really do a lot about reforming our country’s health care or Social Security systems, which Bardwick writes about in Chapter 12. While the chapter’s discussion about the need for a national safety net for workers is interesting on a philosophical level, it doesn’t give employers anything practical to work with.

But the main premise of the book deals with an issue that all employers, and particularly their HR executives, can and should address—and that is what she calls “the psychological recession” that is plaguing our country’s workforce.

Bardwick, a management consultant and a former clinical professor of psychiatry, defines a psychological recession as “an emotional state in which people feel extremely vulnerable and afraid for their futures.”

Americans today feel this way for a number of reasons, according to Bardwick. First of all, the media is constantly playing a gloom-and-doom scenario, which is hard to ignore. Also, after the last market dip in 2001, many very bright, educated and experienced workers found themselves out of work and unable to find a new job. This phenomenon is particularly significant because in the U.S. there is the widely held idea that education leads to job security.

“After the 1990s bust, many of our best educated and highly skilled people could not find jobs for as long as five years,” Bardwick notes.

As a result, today’s workers are not only burdened with concerns about job security, but they’re also not particularly motivated to work hard. They no longer believe that if they are good at what they do, they will be guaranteed job security. At the same time, corporate leaders are taking fewer risks because of the economic downturn. These two factors result in U.S. companies becoming less competitive than their counterparts around the globe, Bardwick says.

“Mostly I worry because psychological insecurity has replaced psychological security for too many people,” she writes. “The American Dream, that uniquely American source of optimism, is in jeopardy.”

To address this deteriorating condition of the country’s workforce, employers need to step up their efforts to engage employees. Rather than just offering cookie-cutter menus of benefits to employees, Bardwick suggests that companies really get to know the people who work for them and ask them what their priorities are.

Bardwick provides readers with a list of priorities that organizations can provide employees to choose from, such as assignments that develop interpersonal skills, advanced professional education and access to career counselors.

Similarly, she suggests that companies figure out what kinds of rewards and recognitions their employees appreciate and make sure they comply when appropriate.

One of the most crucial ways that companies can make sure their employees are engaged and committed, however, is by hiring the right people, Bardwick says.

And to do this, companies need to look beyond candidates’ skills and experience, she says. “Regardless of education nor experience, ultimately it’s personality, values and attitudes that will determine whether or not someone will succeed,” she writes.

By focusing more on who the candidate is and not on what a candidate can do, Bardwick believes companies can make better hires who ultimately will be more committed workers.

While I agree with Bardwick that today’s workers in general don’t have the same level of trust that employees may have had 50 years ago, I am not sure that they’re so demoralized that they are jeopardizing the performance of their companies. While I am all in favor of yet one more argument to create a workplace that engages employees, I’m just not sure the situation is as dire as Bardwick contends.

Still, Bardwick’s statistics and research do indicate that companies with more engaged workers perform better than others. The problem is that anyone picking up this book probably is already in favor of that notion. It’s those executives who have little interest in the psychological state of their employees who need to read One Foot Out the Door.