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According to management consultant Roger Herman, small business is about to be inundated with top talent from the corporate ranks. One aspect of this coming trend, accoring to Herman is that there won't be a need to pay outrageous salaries to bring them on board.

Smart Answers columnist Karen E. Klein recently interviewed Herman on how small business owners can best make use of this coming invasion from the big business world. Here are a few of the questions that she asked Herman on why he thinks this is about to happen.

You're predicting that small-business owners will soon find it easier to attract seasoned employees. Why?

It's going to get easier because top talent is going to be seeking out the smaller firms. What's not going to be so easy is for small companies to manage these high-powered employees who may not be used to working in an entrepreneurial environment.

What's pushing corporate employees to seek out jobs at smaller companies?

Over the years, we have experienced substantial layoffs by large companies. When hundreds or thousands of people lose their jobs unexpectedly because of corporate restructuring, new technology, outsourcing, offshoring, or poor management, the ripple effect can be dramatic. These people know that smaller employers are also squeezed from time to time but that they tend to avoid laying off personnel. That's because each team member is more important to the smaller employer.

What levels of employees are involved in this shift?

This goes all the way from lower-level employees up to the CEOs. An auto worker who has been laid off an assembly line, for instance, can bring a lot of value to a smaller company that's just setting up a manufacturing production line.

What kinds of opportunities for advancement should small-business owners be touting?

An entrepreneurial environment typically offers broader and higher-level advancement and more meaningful, challenging work. In a really large business, most people are just a desk over in the corner. In a smaller firm, that same person's desk might be next to the CEO's.

This is the professional growth people are looking for: They want to give more input and have more jurisdiction over larger areas. Mix in today's emerging values centered on life-work balance, personal engagement with work, and being able to choose where you work, and smaller employers become very attractive.

Overall this is something that has been expected by those who understand the undercurrents of the working environment for years. It's interestig the Mr. Herman sees this as about to happen on a large scale.

It also seems that small business may offer more security over the long run also as huge companies don't compete as much in the smaller niche markets they inhabit.