I ran into a friend at a fundraiser the other night. A former chief operating officer with a well-known Silicon Valley company, he’s now semi-retired. We talked about his plans and he said he was considering writing a book or starting a blog. The title for either: “It’s the People, Stupid.” My friend, Mike, is forever confounded by the way executives view employees. It came as no surprise to Mike when the employee engagement issue emerged and research concluded that companies with engaged employees enjoyed double-digit growth compared to single-digit growth or negative growth in companies with largely unengaged or actively disengaged workforces. “Of course,” he said. “It’s what I’ve been saying. It’s the people, stupid.”

I thought about Mike when I heard the results of new Conference Board research, announced yesterday, that shows 50% of American workers are dissatisfied with their jobs. They show up for the paycheck, but they’re only williing to do what it takes to stay employed. None of them will go the extra mile. That compares to 40% 10 years ago. Worse, among those who said they were satisfied with their jobs, only 14% classified themselves as very satisifed.

Who’s to blame? From where I sit, that’s easy. Companies that make pronouncements like “The customer comes first” and “the customer is always right” are to blame. Companies who view their employees as assets are to blame, since assets are easily depleted. The company that ranked first in the most recent “100 Best Companies to Work For” states in its values that employees come first. Not only have they written that value down, but they walk the talk at all levels of the company. It’s no big shock, then, when the company turns in outstanding financial performance.

Communication plays a huge role in engaging employees, but the best communications ever conceived will not produce a single upward tick in engagement if management doesn’t walk the talk. Remember the Tylenol tampering incident? The company pulled its product from store shelves with the full knowledge that sales would plummet. They never would have made this decision if shareholders were the company’s paramount priority. Customers came before shareholders based on the belief that if the company took care of customers, shareholders would reap the benefit. We all remember the company’s decision because of how well it turned out; the Tylenol incident is widely touted as an example of excellent crisis communication.

Now imagine putting employees first. They’re so satisfied that they do go the extra mile. Customers are happy. Money pours in. Shareholders are rewarded for their investment. According to a widely-repeated story (which I fervently hope is true), Herb Kelleher, founder and former CEO of Southwest Airlines put it another way when explaining the core of his company’s vision: “Smiles on faces. Butts in seats. Money in the bank.” Why do people put up with everything unpleasant about flying Southwest? Because we want to be served by those wonderful, happy, engaged employees, from the ticket agents to the flight attendants. I love it when a flight attendant sings a song at the end of a flight. I love how all the passengers applaud. Money in the bank flows from smiles on employee faces. Sincere smiles. They’re thrilled to be there. They’re thrilled to be serving you.

The sad thing is that most companies won’t take the right steps to lower the percentage of dissatisfied employees. In 10 years, we may well see 60% of workers unhappy with their jobs. All because management never bought into the message: It’s the people, stupid.