So last week we were having this conversation about engagement, and how for most companies it's window-dressing. Here's a good example, from an Ad Age story today, that shows what it looks like when companies do change their behavior in order to engage employees. Procter & Gamble and Unilever are spending millions on ads touting the ethics, the sustainability, the social responsibility of their products.

Why? For the employees!

"Though both P&G and Unilever see prospects for substantial gains from such efforts on their bottom lines and for the communities in which they operate, both acknowledge that much of the effort is for internal consumption. Simply put, it's getting impossible to attract or retain marketers without a solid reputation for ethical marketing.

"'We are seeing, particularly with the new generation of young business people and young marketers, that they are only attracted to companies that fit with their own value set,' said Kevin Havelock, president of Unilever U.S. 'And the value set of the new generation is one that says this company must take a positive and global view on the global environment. ... The ethical positions we take on brands like Dove, the positions we take on not using models of size zero across any of our brands, the positions we take in terms of adding back to communities ... these all underpin an attractive proposition for marketers.'"

Of course this raises all sorts of questions for Gen Xers and above, like: Didn't our generation have an idealistic "value set" (I don't remember anyone ever asking me about my "value set"!) Or, where did this generation of goody-goodies get its brass balls?

But if Havelock is even 1/3th right when he says that these companies are changing their business practices they can't lure good marketers unless they can demonstrate they're doing good in the world—that's pretty friggin' engaging, I'd say.