A Deloitte report on human capital trends in Southeast Asia made the point that leaders recognize the growing importance of an engaged workforce, while also realizing their capability to drive engagement is lacking. A report released in Singapore just last week found more than half the companies surveyed said they had employees who are “physically present but ‘mentally absent.'” Low employee engagement is closely correlated with poor performance and high attrition (which means lower revenues and higher costs), and these are certainly not helpful in companies who are trying to grow.

While low engagement is a problem no matter where it shows up in your workforce, disengaged high potential employees, or HiPos, create serious long-term challenges. These are not just people who have performed strongly up until now; instead, these are the employees who have also shown the potential to do well at higher levels of the organization. To have success in the years to come you need leaders who can grow your company now and lead it in the future, and you are losing that capability when your HiPos are disengaged.

The slowing growth of the last few years and the rising job insecurity in previously safe industries have caused many HiPos to focus more on surviving and less on excelling. You need to get them back on board and reignite whatever flame was pushing them to be the best, and get them re-excited about pursuing their talents. This is not just a matter of paying them more, it’s instead a matter of helping them want to do their best work now while striving to improve.

One option is to increase their responsibility. As your business grows and the work increases, give your HiPos more oversight of projects (rather than hiring new managers from the outside) and more mentoring responsibilities as you start to increase the size of your workforce. Give them a stake in creating the future company so that down the road they will be more interested in leading it.

Put their talents to great use now by putting your HiPos onto the most interesting projects. Though it is certainly more equitable to spread the interesting projects around (as well as the dull ones), consider that these are the employees you are most interested in retaining, so you need to consider giving them the work that they will enjoy the most. They have probably had to do their share of the boring, routine work, so as things pick up, give them a chance to really feel creative and innovative again.

Consider how you develop your HiPos. Now is the time to start sending them for real training and development programs, some structured opportunities like classes or conferences. Show them that you’re willing to make an investment in them. Be sure to have a plan for putting that new knowledge to use when they return to their job; their career plan and development plan should be closely integrated, and no one should ever go off to training without measurable objectives for how they will use that training when they return. We have all heard the story about the CFO who asks, “What if we train these people, and they leave?,” and the CEO who replies, “What if we don’t train them, and they stay?” These are the people they are talking about the most.

You cannot afford to have your HiPos cut and run, or decide they just want to remain where they are rather than advancing. Someone needs to move up someday, and if your succession plan calls for your internal workforce to be a major source for future leaders, then you need to make sure they’re motivated to move in that direction. Now is the time to see if those folks you identify as your high potentials need some reengagement effort. Give them what they need, or you risk wasting them.