I have been noodling for quite some time over the work/life balance movement. I call it a movement because it really was not even something anyone mentioned or thought about when I entered the workforce in the 1970s. It has come about over the past 15 years and has swept corporate America and the world.

I can’t think of any organization that has not had to change policies or at least address its employees on the issue of work/life balance. Perhaps it emerged because more Gen X employees moved into leadership positions and were more aware of the precariousness of employment and about how quickly corporate can swing from breakneck hiring to layoffs.

But whatever the causes, the issues involved are core to whether people accept offers, stay with an organization, or decide to work for themselves.

Over the past few weeks most recruiters have had to spend some time thinking about their own employment situation and assessing its relative security, engagement, and continuity. They have also had to deal with reluctant candidates, uncertain retirees, and fearful employees. How we think about work is fundamental to almost everything else we do.

The work/life balance movement is based on set of assumptions that aren’t questioned very often, yet are very strange from the perspective of a Baby Boomer such as myself or from that of anyone who has studied or thought about the history of work.

If I were to state the assumptions that underlie the work/life balance movement, they would go something like this: Work is something we do for money, is generally not very enjoyable, and interferes with more important things like family. Work, therefore, should be regulated and time with our families should be mandatory. The work/life balance cause assumes a more or less digital world: work is on or off, family is on or off.

Yet, for centuries work and life were co-joined. Men toiled in fields, small shops, bazaars, and at home without paychecks, labor laws, or a day off. Women and men often shared skills and children were almost always part of the working and life equation as soon as they were old enough.

Work might not have been fun in our modern sense, but it was a family activity and it was the fabric of life. Most people chose to do something they liked, or at least something that provided them food and shelter and employed members of their family. Even learning was a family activity and fathers and sons often co-invented things or passed their knowledge to each succeeding generation.

The modern separation mindset is new and is a result of the physical isolation of work in factories and offices. It is the result of physical and mental separation from family. It is the result of over specialization to the point where your spouse cannot understand what work you do.

Yet I see that the Gen Y folks, the Millennials, seem to have an intuitive understanding that you should seek out work you care about. They are rejecting the work/life notions, much to the chagrin of their elder Gen X colleagues. Gen Y tends to look for work they are passionate about and then they tend to work in ways foreign to Gen X. They take any sense of balance away and may work for days without a stop or not work much at all for some time. They try to choose meaningful and interesting work and embrace it with a passion only seen once in a while with Gen X or Baby Boomers.

In order to most effectively deal with the questions this economic turmoil raises, be able to answer these questions:

Question #1: If I am able to make an adequate living doing whatever I am now doing, what does your organization offer me beyond that?

You should have a clear understanding of the contributions employees can make to society or to fulfilling an employee’s long term career goals. Every recruiter should encourage the organization to commit to funding and supporting social and environmental improvements and activities. Google, for example, allows employees paid time to work for charitable organizations on a regular basis.

Question #2: Can you accommodate my preferred work style?

Many younger employees and also many Gen X and Baby Boomer workers are asking for flexible working schedules and telecommuting opportunities. These will be core benefits offered by successful organizations over the next decade. Without these you will find it very hard to hire and retain your most productive and valuable people. As soon as any competitor offers them an opportunity for these, they will leave you.

Question #3: What opportunities are there for me to fulfill my life ambitions here?

Work is no longer all about the employee doing things only for the organization. It is also about what the organization is doing for the individual. Some corporations offer employees college programs in areas that have nothing to do with work. For example, some pay for things like nursing school or law school while the employee is doing some totally different type of work.

Others offer cross-functional movement and provide the training and coaching needed to make the person successful. And they make this a significant part of the employment experience, not just a perk for the privileged few.

This is the out-of-the-box stuff that will keep the best people, at least for awhile, and improve the productivity and engagement of everyone.

I am not the only one predicting that it will be increasingly difficult to convince younger people to work for large corporations unless they have more input to the type of work and the conditions they work under. As work returns slowly to individuals, entrepreneurs, small shops, and small organizations, we will see more and more integration between work and life. More spouses will work together and more children will be part of that work. The days of specialization, physical separation, and mental isolation are ending, I think and hope. We have traversed across a century of change to return to where we started.

Problem solved? Not exactly … the conversation turned political and heated up this past week when Amanda Blazo and others recommended using an RPO firm operating in either the Philippines or India. Charles Hillman was left asking, “Why utilize an India based RPO when there are a ton of quality researchers right here in the USA that can do the job.” Jeff Altman responds with a call for patriotism…why aren’t we creating more jobs in the United States? Hope Blaythorne argued that we are in a global economy, and encouraged cooperation with overseas markets. While Josh Letourneau supported Jeff and noted that many of the responses in favor of outsourcing come from outsourcing vendors. According to Josh, “Arguing about whether offshoring is good or bad isn’t going to solve the problem — it’s overall job LOSS that is the issue (which comes in many forms), and I hope we can figure out a solution.”

Where do you stand on this issue? We would love to hear from you…

Unethical Competitors
Who knew recruiting could get so ugly?

Laura Nyp has a competitor who sends her great candidates who “ditch their interviews at the last minute without any warning.” Jill Gilliland, Paul Lipman, and Joseph Ray offer some simple advice that many others echo … stop working with them! Joseph Ray and Pam Claughton recommend doing your homework on both the client and the candidate. The reputation of a client can turn off a candidate before the interview process. Tracy McKenn and Jim Cargill want to know more … Is Laura sure the competitor is sending these candidates? What would be the motivation? How long have they been working together. We would love to hear an update, Laura!

Employer-paid Benefits
Tami Heyden wants to know what potential candidates would look for in a benefits package. What are the pros and cons of employee vs. employer-paid benefits? Peter Raloff’s company offers 80% of employer-paid benefits plus three weeks of vacation time … not too shabby for the D.C. area. However, Scott Robinson and Pam Claughton feel that companies can do better. Scott had a candidate who accepted a job where the employer paid 100%, in addition to country club membership, company cars, and flex time. Hmmm….are they hiring? Pam feels that 100% coverage is a “huge selling point.”

I Am Sensing a Freaking Out
Maureen Sharib is … from people in the industry. Times are tough and Maureen is noticing dramatic cuts in departments. I have been talking to companies that are “going back to basics” and cutting anything that doesn’t fall under recruiting basics (i.e, campus recruiting). Jim Constantine and Karla Baierl warn us of the negative impact of the media. “Keep your head down, deliver great value, and ride it out!” is Jim’s advice to staying afloat. Amanda Blazo would agree with Jim and shares a positive story in the construction industry. Maureen concludes by reminding us that “those recruiters that don’t embrace the fact that we’re in a sales business are gonna have a hard time.”

Monday’s Question of the Day
The discussion last week about keeping recruiting costs down is still hot this week … what’s your strategy?

• Non-compete clauses
• “Color tests”
• Internal recruiting
• Resume search/software tool
• Working from home
• Job board debate

Non-Compete Clause
Non-compete agreements are always a hot topic of debate on the ERE discussion boards. This week, Les Noonan wants assistance on updating his company’s non-compete clause. David Rees offers some practical advice: get a lawyer. Although not an advocate of non-competes, he understands that it can be a complex issue since most states have very different rules. He also wonders why “employers are willing to constrain the freedom of a departing employee for the purpose of protecting their financial interests.” Les agrees with David’s comments and clarifies his request. He is actually looking for advice on a non-solicitation agreement. He wants to protect the “time and money” his company has invested in their current clients. Seems like a fair request to David but Nick Cobb feels that companies need to focus more on retaining their current employees. Maureen Sharib directs our attention to a recent case in California that you might want to check out if you are facing similar challenges.

Wednesday’s Question of the Day
I wanted to know if anyone thinks “The Color Career Counselor,” CareerBuilder’s latest tool that links job choices to favorite colors, would benefit recruiting. David Rees does not feel that this tool is validated. “Can you imagine going to an interview for a career as a computer programmer and they ask you why you choose the profession and you say…’well…I have always loved the color green.’” He later takes the test and comes to the same conclusion. Paul Davenport agrees that it is just for fun, not based in reality. Stephanie Wolf disagrees and feels that this tool can benefit college students who may feel lost with a career decision. John Kennedy wants to know if there are any tests that can predict job-based personalities. You might want to read John Zappe’s article from August 13 on the topic. Just curious…did anyone else take the test?

Internal Sourcing
David Hafernik wants to know the general policy of “internal recruiting” in most companies. Can employers recruit away from another internal manager? Are there limits? Pam Claughton worked for a large bank that had strict rules around internal recruiting. Employees had to work for a certain amount of time before they could post their resume internally. However, recruiters had great success working with the hiring managers and their direct reports to locate candidates from direct competitors. Each employee was then rewarded with an employee referral bonus. JB Smith agrees with Pam and adds that “we posted all positions internally for the first seven days then posted for external candidates. Employees were still allowed to apply after externally posting.”

Resume Search/Software Tool
Amit N is looking to purchase “resume search software” that will search multiple job boards, and wants to know if anyone has suggestions. According to Ashley Schettler, the decision will depend on the specific industry. She recommends TalentHook for IT but needs a more effective tool for recruiting in health care. Ken Kimbrough disagrees. TalentHook is “superb” and should generate resumes for all industries. According to Ken, “if you had databases, sites, etc that you wanted to search, they would accommodate your desires without much hassle.” Carly Eriksen recommends AIRS Sourcepoint. Does anyone else have other suggestions? We would love to hear them!

Work From Home Jobs
This topic always interests me since I work from home! Mack Will is also interested in learning of any “legit work from home jobs other than virtual recruiting.” Apparently, this is a very popular nationwide topic. Tim Esse referenced a local CBS show that addressed the topic and Christy Grimske reminded us that Google’s “Rat Race Rebellion” publishes a weekly list of legit work from home jobs. Susan Carson and Cassandra Firnstah both shared success stories of a virtual advertising company run by a group of women, and a customer call center.

Monday’s Question of the Day
The debate on whether or not job boards are obsolete is still going strong! It’s not too late to post a comment.

“. . .we can say that Muad’Dib learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could learn.      It is shocking to find how many people do not believe  they can learn, and how many more believe learning     to be difficult.”
-Frank Herbert, Dune

This quote from the well-known science fiction novel Dune underlines the difficulty many people have in learning. Learning means change, examining what we are now doing, and being open to explore what we could do differently.

Very few of us have ever learned to learn and most of us live in fear of learning. This fear has roots in embarrassment, fear of failure, fear of ridicule, our society’s worship of “book” learning over experiential learning, the desire to be like everyone else, the need to be liked, and many other needs and fears.

Children have the wonderful gift of total trust that they can, through interaction with their environment, learn. They experiment, test, challenge, and in the process, learn. Their natural curiosity and excitement over piecing together the world as they discover it is a wonderful thing to witness. Yet, somehow as we go through our formal schooling that innate belief in our own ability to learn, and most of our curiosity, is taken out of us.

Our organizations reflect this as well. Only a few are true learning organizations that invent the future and do so regularly. One that comes to mind is Apple. Perhaps fueled by Steve Jobs and his seeming less-ruthless focus on perfection, it remains youthful and exciting, even now that it is into middle age. It has programmed into itself the ability to take risks, be bold, and go where others are afraid to go.

Recruiting remains a transactional and traditional function for most of us. Not much learning, and consequently change, has taken place despite huge changes in how organizations design, manufacture, and sell their products and services.

Talent remains local. Competencies reflect yesterday’s needs. Sourcing is still a reactive process based on templates designed in the past. And hiring happens the same way it did 50 years ago.

If you want to be a mover and shaker in this profession, you have to learn to learn. You have to take some chances and do things differently.

Here are some slightly out-of-the-box thoughts on how you can create a learning environment and stimulate discussion and change by challenging the traditional and by boldly acting differently:

1. Hire people from the same spectrum of countries you purchase raw materials from or where you sell your products. Whatever else these employees are doing for your organization, they are also eyes and ears for product development and for sales growth. They may have fresh ideas about uses for products or have ideas for new services you can offer. And, given the talent shortages, it may be easier to find certain skills in those countries than in your own. To make this work, develop a sourcing strategy that works in multiple countries and a career site that is in multiple languages and has different recruiting messages for different countries. Encourage leadership to embrace virtual employment and let employees work in their native countries.
2. Hire people from parallel occupations. Try and expand your hiring managers to think more broadly than they do now about the kinds of people they want to hire.  Too often I find job requirements that are narrow and way too specific. These descriptions often list very specific competencies and precise skills that a candidate must have, along with a certain level of experience, to qualify for a job. In a few cases this kind of specificity may be necessary, but for the most part it is wasteful and not creative. By encouraging hiring managers to think out the box (for example, hiring music majors and training them to be programmers as Cisco and IBM have done) expands your talent pool, can lower starting salaries, and makes it more likely that some creative new concept will emerge because these people have not been trained that something cannot be done. The time to productivity curve may be longer, but the quality of thought and the morale of employees will be higher.
3. Rehire retirees or retain baby boomers. Many organizations could realize gains in product development, time-to-market, and other areas by bringing back experienced ex-employees who have retired or by hanging on to experienced boomers who are thinking about retiring. Transferring knowledge to younger workers is a major undertaking for many organizations and the best way to do this is to utilize the older worker’s experience as mentors or coaches for younger workers. By putting a few experienced employees on a project with younger workers, learning happens automatically. No time is used in classrooms or seminars. Work remains the focus with learning a significant byproduct.
4. Get rid of job titles and levels. Put people into project teams with only broad titles such as engineer, planner, statistician, marketer, and so forth. Let the team collaboratively decide who does what based on the team’s goals and desired outcomes. Hire people with broad skills and experience or with only a little experience (e.g., new college graduates). Creativity and change most often come about when there is a significant contrast or gap between people, ideas, or needs.

If you are looking for greater satisfaction and commitment to your profession, be open to learning and actively practicing it.

You practice learning by taking chances, experimenting, measuring the results against a standard, and trying again. Being open to learning and making changes is what differentiates the movers and shakers from everyone else.

It’s almost impossible to pick up a newspaper or magazine and not read about the economic conditions that are putting a strain on almost everyone’s budget and way of life.

Rather than ignoring it or hoping it will go away, look upon it as a chance to “turn lemons into lemonade” and to further strengthen your employment brand image.

It has been common for corporations to offer benefits to their employees to ease their commutes or to help save the environment. However, the recent dramatic rise in gas prices provides corporations with an opportunity to really amp up their offerings, and to demonstrate to those they wish to attract and retain that the organization “cares” about them.

In fact, one study by Dr. Wayne Hochwarter, of Florida State University, found that high gas prices led to more stress on the job, thus impacting employee performance. In his research, Dr. Hochwarter found that one-third of the employees surveyed said they would quit their job for a comparable one closer to home.

Research by outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that 34% of employers had potential candidates who turned down jobs because of long commutes and added nearly 8% of employers report turnover caused by high transportation costs.

Acting now provides an opportunity to build your employment brand because the combined topics of gas prices, food prices, and the mortgage crisis are hot in the media. As a result, any bold action by a corporation is likely not just to be viewed positively by employees and potential applicants but also by those covering consumer confidence and spending in the media.

Efforts by employers to help workers cope with these economic factors will likely be written up in the press and in business publications. Not only would you be helping your workers, but you will also be building employee loyalty while getting free PR to further strengthen your employment brand image. It’s an opportunity that won’t last long, so it shouldn’t be missed.

Many firms have already been recognized for excellence in these areas, including Google, Intel, Oracle, Microsoft, Cisco, Nike, and HP. There are many actions to consider, and I’ve separated the various options into broad categories below.

Promoting Drive-Less Options

The first group of options is relatively cheap, but they can have a significant impact on the amount of money your employees need to pay in commute costs. 12 “drive-less” options include:

1. Compressed workweek options. Offer schedules that allow commuters to reduce the number of days they come in to work. A 4-day, 10-hour workweek is the most popular, but some professions also use 3-day, 12-hour weeks. The key is to not just offer these programs, but to encourage individual managers to allow their employees to actually take advantage of them. If coverage is an issue, consider allowing employees to alternate on/off alternative schedules.
2. Work at home. A related option is to allow employees to choose on their own to work one or more days at home. In addition to saving commute costs, firms like Best Buy have found that telecommuting can generate up to a 35% increase in employee productivity, and research by the Gartner Group found up to a 40% improvement. Allowing employees to take periodic “planning” or innovation days where they spend their time thinking and planning for the future can also be an effective option. Benchmark firms in this area include Best Buy, Sun, IBM, Agilent, and HP.
3. Satellite offices. By establishing satellite offices closer to where employees live, firms can offer opportunities for employees to use restricted computer and communications networks that cannot be accessed remotely while reducing the mileage employees drive to and from work. Employees that need to use company equipment (but do not necessarily need to meet with coworkers) can decide on which days they will work from these remote corporate locations. Microsoft’s touchdown space is an excellent example of this practice; however, Sun is the benchmark firm in this area, locating offices on all major access routes into major metropolitan areas.
4. Bike/walk to work. This can both improve health (reducing benefit costs) and help employees save on gas. Companies can facilitate this practice by offering maps that highlight the flattest and quickest routes. They can also help by providing relaxed dress codes that allow employees to wear athletic clothes, as well as providing bike storage space and showers for their peddling employees. Walk to work or walk to mass transit location programs can have similar positive impacts.
5. Make all-day meetings remote. Rather than requiring everyone to commute to all-day meetings, use conference calls and Web-based tools to allow some workers to attend meetings from home. These options can also save airline travel costs. HP and Cisco are the benchmark leaders in this area.
6. On-site services. Dry cleaning, concierge, flowers, and take-out food can reduce the need for employees to run errands during lunch and after work. Also, consider vendor-provided gas-saving services like engine tune-ups and tire inflation. Google is a leader in this area.
7. Offer online training. This can save on travel costs. Also, consider offering university classes on-site, so that your employees can improve themselves without the increased costs associated with driving to a local university.
8. Reduce lunchtime and snack travel. For firms with few on-site lunch options, consider inviting lunch wagons that can sit in the parking lot. Other options include providing box lunches and snacks on site, as well as menus from local restaurants that deliver, shifting the cost of ordering out to the food provider.
9. Increase company car usage. Firms can help their employees reduce their personal gas costs by liberalizing or expanding the number of opportunities for employees to use company cars.
10. Job transfers. In organizations with many outlets (like retail), reduce employee gas usage by offering a one-time option to facilitate transfers to locations closer to the employee’s home. Consider offering internal “save on gas” job fairs where workers can meet with managers from other locations to see if relocation is a viable option that provides mutual benefits.
11. Shift the organization’s start time. In congested areas, starting your commute an hour earlier or later can result in significant gas savings as a result of fewer backups and less congestion.
12. Live close to work facilitation. Firms can offer services or work with local Realtors in order to make it easy for their employees to find apartments and housing close to the workplace. The leading firm in this area is Facebook, which offers an astonishing $700 per month salary supplement for employees who live within a mile of their headquarters. University Hospitals in Cleveland is also a benchmark organization.

Share the Commute

• Coordinate shared commuting. Firms can help their employees to both save on gas and tolls by facilitating employee carpools, van pools, or a company shuttle. In many large cities, tax breaks encourage corporate van-pooling programs. An additional benefit is the reduced need for employee parking. Microsoft, Yahoo, and HP are benchmark firms. Also, offer a company-sponsored shuttle bus from transit stations close to work or from strategic locations.
• Coordinate schedules. More individuals would share rides if they could share similar schedules with individuals who live close to them. This option requires you to work with individual managers to ensure that they make commuting part of their scheduling decision criteria.

Facilitate Opportunities for Cheaper Gas

• Negotiate group discounts. Because corporations with many employees have significant buying power, work with local fuel suppliers and individual gas stations to negotiate volume discounts for employees who use targeted stations. Incidentally, try similar options for bulk food items to help employees deal with the rising cost of food.
• Buy “company” gas. Some organizations have their own fueling facilities and these firms might be able to find a way to offer that gas to employees. By buying “gas futures,” firms can successfully hedge against future price increases (i.e., Southwest Airlines has successfully done this for its aviation fuel).
• Allow employees access to “fleet” stations. Some firms utilize gas stations that provide gasoline for fleet cars. Negotiate with their vendors to identify opportunities where employees can get gas at these low-priced fleet stations.
• Negotiate “buy” options. Use the company’s volume buying power to help negotiate lower-cost deals with vendors that allow your employees to lease or buy more gas-efficient vehicles. Vehicles might include scooters, electric segues, bikes, and compact or hybrid cars. (Note: there federal and in some cases state tax advantages associated with purchasing hybrid cars.)
• Subsidize mass transit. Offer subsidies to individuals who use mass transit. Some government agencies provide tax advantages to firms that facilitate the use of mass transit (others provide penalties to those that don’t).

Increase Manager and Employee Participation

Corporations can take specific steps to encourage both individual managers and employees to participate in gas-saving options:

• Measure and reward managers. Recognize those who are “commute cost” friendly; conduct an employee survey to identify the best.
• Executive participation. Have the CEO and senior executives actively participate in company programs (i.e., participating in car pools, biking to work, or occasionally driving the company shuttle).
• Gas incentives. Provide gas cards as incentives and rewards for top-performing employees and managers.

Miscellaneous Options

• Conduct a survey and ask employees what they think you should be doing.
• Benchmark other firms to see what else is possible.
• Allow compacts, hybrids, and scooters to park closer to the building to send a message that you care about the environment.
• Help them sell their gas-guzzler car or subsidize the purchase of fuel-efficient vehicles.
• Add saving gas as a criterion for selecting new facility sites.
• Consider reducing nepotism restrictions so that family members can work together and thus, commute together.

Provide Employees with Opportunities to Earn More Money

Because rising costs are essentially lowering your employees’ “real” standard of living, provide your employees with more opportunities to earn more money during these tough economic times:

• Opportunity for overtime. Encourage managers to develop more opportunities for employees to work overtime to help them offset the rising cost of living.
• Pay for performance. Offer increased opportunities for performance-based pay. Although giving employees “more money” is always a high-cost item, if any additional pay is based strictly on improved performance, both firms and employees can come out ahead.
• Increase mileage allowance. The IRS has recently recognized a higher cost of gasoline by increasing the amount of reimbursement that it allows per mile traveled. Companies can help their employees by not waiting and increasing their mileage allotment immediately.
• COLA. A final option to consider is offering your employees periodic cost-of-living adjustments. Sometimes this is necessary in order to decrease your employees’ need to look for a second job (or even a job at another firm) in order to meet their family needs.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, there are many options available to corporations. For the best impact, implement a comprehensive program with many elements. Not only will this approach have a larger impact on employees, but it also increases the odds of your effort receiving positive exposure.

“It isn’t unusual to find employees driving 50, 75, even 100 miles each way to work and that can cost them $5,000 a year just in gas,” says Chuck Wilsker, president and CEO of the Telework Coalition, a Washington DC-based organization that supports telework options.

“When telecommuting is an option, it eliminates the geographic recruiting boundaries and increases the pool of prospective candidates. I have heard of specific situations where employers have been able to offer 15% less salary, simply because the employee will no longer need to absorb the daily commute cost.”

Employees who commute 30 miles or more to work are likely to turn-over at higher rates now that gas prices have sky-rocketed, according to Wilsker, and it will only get worse when the job market and the economy rebound. If more firms begin offering telecommuting options to appease employees, the competition for top talent will literally have no boundaries, since proximity to the office will no longer be a major recruiting criterion.

In addition, with no ceiling on gas prices projected anytime soon, Wilsker says that commute costs are starting to concern highly skilled employees, not just hourly workers. In the past, employees making $150,000 to $250,000 might not have considered long commutes when weighing an offer, now they are now thinking about it long and hard before accepting.

Fuel and commuting expenses are also making it harder to close offers made to relocating candidates says Mickey Matteson, account executive for Recruiter Relocation, a third-party relocation company. She says candidates are scrutinizing the cost of living in prospective urban areas, and in the past, most candidates would have accepted the offer, opting to live in less-expensive suburbs or outlying areas. Now, given the commute costs, more are either turning down offers or negotiating for higher salaries.

Matteson says relocation costs are also escalating and those increases are impacting recruiting. The average moving company fee is now $10,342, and many of the quoted prices have jumped so dramatically by the move date that some candidate deals are unraveling at the last minute. The total cost of relocating an employee or candidate is now $55,165, and given the steep price tag, Matteson says that 81% of companies are requiring relocating candidates sign repayment agreements, forcing them to repay the relocation costs, if they quit before completing one year of employment.

“Candidates are being more cautious and many are opting to rent out their existing homes rather than selling them,” says Matteson. “That’s making employers nervous because they don’t feel the candidate is committed, but at the same time, candidates want to try out their new employers and new surroundings. Some employers are allowing new workers to fly back and forth, but given what’s happened with the airline industry recently, I’m not sure that decision will make sense for very long.”

The Winners

Some employers are organizing car pools and offering employees the opportunity to purchase discounted mass transit passes, and the most progressive companies, are offering full or part-time telecommuting programs, which helps to attract and retain talent.

REI, the outdoor clothing retailer based in the Pacific Northwest and a perennial winner of Fortune magazine’s Best Places to Work Award, installed a customized work environment program (CWE) in some departments at its headquarters several months ago.

Initially, the program’s main goal was to help employees achieve greater work-life balance; now, the employees are saving money on gas. CWE allows employees to select alternate commute times to avoid traffic or the opportunity to work from home a few days a week, based upon each department’s need. CWE along with REI’s other subsidized transportation programs, such as van pools and paying 50% toward the cost of mass-transit passes, is a strong selling point with applicants, according to Bruce Bobzien, senior recruiter for REI.

So if telecommuting attracts applicants, lowers costs and increases employee satisfaction, what’s holding companies back from offering the option to everyone? Command and control. Employers are often reluctant to allow people to work remotely, beyond the constant watch of managers.

Jay Horowitz, CEO of Strategic Legal Solutions, a New York-based provider of outsourced legal services and staffing, recommends easing into telecommuting to get started, offering the arrangements on a case-by-case basis, perhaps a few days each week, to trusted workers. He also suggests employers make certain the telecommuting employee has a properly outfitted home office to assure effective communications.

Strategic Legal built a practice around experienced telecommuting attorneys who provide remote support for large cases and projects, such as class-action law suit discovery. Horowitz says that law firms are cognizant of all the indirect costs of employment including space, furniture, computers, and parking, so increasingly, the firms requested offsite attorneys for project work. Now, given the current gas prices, the concept makes even more sense.

“I wouldn’t hesitate to allow an employee to telecommute now that I’ve done it before,” says Horowitz, who allows the firm’s account executives to telecommute. “But I think you should have them come into the office for the first few weeks, train them, expose them to the culture and be very clear about the expectations. Maybe have them come into the office one morning each week after training, so you can stay connected. I think the more flexibility you show as an employer, the more likely it is you’ll be able to secure top talent.”

New Tools for Remote Supervision

Information technology has traditionally offered remote work opportunities, yet even the tech industry hasn’t had all the tools it needs to supervise telecommuting workers. oDesk, an online tool businesses use to build and manage remote teams, received $15 million in funding last week. The oDesk Web-based collaboration tools enable project managers to visually track and verify all work performed, both historically and in real-time.

The company built a tree-house office in a park in London, and the software giant‘s message is that corporate decisions don‘t always need to be dictated within the confines of four walls and harsh fluorescent lighting.

In the United Kingdom, Microsoft research shows that nine out of 10 British workers desire an out-of-office setting — with 75% saying this flexibility is a huge factor in deciding whether to accept a new job opportunity.

It is expected that by 2012, the United Kingdom will have over 5.5 million remote workers.

The U.S. Census Bureau’s recently released American Community Service analysis shows that approximately 4% of Americans worked from home in 2005.

This is despite a Korn/Ferry survey of 1,320 executives showing that 61% believe telecommuters are less likely to be promoted, compared to their on-site colleagues.

The Census Bureau report shows the cities with the highest rates of home-based workers include Austin, Texas (5%); Colorado Springs, Colorado (5%); Portland, Oregon (5.3%); San Francisco (6.3%); and Seattle (5.1%).

(The Telecommuter Tax Fairness Act to prohibit states from taxing non-residents on the income they earn at home is one piece of pending legislation that might remove obstacles to the growth of interstate telework.)

Although the short-lived stint in the tree has ended (the tree-house office was recently dismantled), your company can still champion the MOOF movement. To read more about users’ MOOF-ing experiences, the blog www.moof.mobi offers advice, questions, and feedback.

While completing the research for the third edition of my book, Hire With Your Head (Wiley & Sons, June, 2007), I found out a lot has changed. The thing that stands out most is the profound increase in workforce mobility in the U.S. labor market.

Company loyalty has declined. Changing jobs for short-term and superficial reasons is on the rise. Turnover is on the increase. Accepting counteroffers is now acceptable and expected.

The hidden job market is no longer hidden. The barriers and prohibitions to leaving a company are no longer present. Everyone can now find the new jobs and new opportunities.

Passive candidates are no longer hidden, either, which is an even bigger problem if you’re trying to compete for them. Anyone can now find them on ZoomInfo or LinkedIn.

These changes will have a profound effect on how companies design their sourcing and recruiting programs. From what I can tell, most companies are not handling this increase in workforce mobility too well. The bad news: things will get worse as the baby boomers start retiring en masse.

To address these changes, recruiting managers need to understand how the marketplace for talent is shifting, and then develop flexible sourcing programs to respond to these changes.

Segment Candidates Based on Their Need for a Job

Many years ago, I wrote an ERE article on semi-sourcing. In it, a distinction was made between active and passive candidates and the difference in candidate quality within each group. Knowing how these people looked for jobs then became the basis for developing targeted sourcing programs for each group. These groups are described below:

• Very Active. These are people who need a job and are aggressively looking. They tend to be less discriminating and focus on short-term issues, like compensation and benefits, when considering a new job. This pool represents about 15% to 20% of the total employment market. People in this group are either unemployed or severely under-employed. The best people are under-represented in this pool. Traditional boring advertising is sufficient to attract and hire this type of person.
• Semi-Active. These are people fully employed who want a better job. They look infrequently, generally on bad days, or just to test the market. However, while they use job boards, they are more selective. Compelling advertising and systems designed to bring these people to the top of the list is a key aspect of hiring them. This pool is big, about 25% of the employment market, and it’s growing. It doesn’t take much anymore to get someone to considering leaving and start looking. This is the sourcing sweet spot, since the best people are over-represented in this pool. To capture them, your ads need to be visible and you must move fast. Corporations should implement programs to excel at sourcing people from this group.
• Semi-Passive. These are people who want a better job and a better career. They are not actively looking, but they will accept a phone call to discuss future career opportunities. Who you call and what you say is a critical part of hiring these types of people. The best people are fairly represented in this pool, but it takes more effort and time to find them. This pool includes about 25% of the employee market, and it’s growing as well. Semi-passive candidates want to be found and pursued, so they’ll post their names on LinkedIn and somehow get their profiles listed on ZoomInfo. Make sure when you call or email you have something compelling to offer, though, or else your efforts will be fruitless.
• Very Passive. These people don’t want another job. It takes lots of effort and time to call and convince them to pursue your opportunity. The best people are fairly represented in this pool, but it’s not worth the effort if you can find an equally strong person using some lower-cost approach. These very passive people represent about 30% of the market, but it’s declining. Everybody seems open to explore new opportunities, which is not necessarily a good thing.

Sourcing Ideas for Semi-Active Candidates

If you want to maximize candidate quality and reduce cost and time to hire at the same time, you need to be great at sourcing from the semi-active candidate pool. But there’s competition here, so you’ll need to become a semi-active sourcing expert to hire a disproportionate share of the top people in this pool. Here are some quick ideas on how to pull this off:

1. Visible advertising. If your jobs can’t be found, they’re worthless. To test your job visibility quotient, conduct a Google search including an open job title, a few required skill terms, the word “jobs,” and the name of the city. If your job isn’t on the returned search listing, put it on the boards that do show up and then figure out why some other job outranks yours. Better: contact Jobs2Web.com to find out how they’ll clone your site and make it visible to everyone using search engine optimization techniques.
2. Compelling advertising offering better jobs. While it’s important that your jobs be found, it’s more important that they’re compelling. So if you’re just posting traditional job descriptions, don’t waste your money on any search engine optimization techniques. The best semi-active candidates are looking for better jobs, not another job. To differentiate your jobs, make the point quickly with an outrageous title and a first paragraph so compelling the person can’t wait to respond.
3. Simple application process. If the person decides to apply, make sure the resume is parsed into a completed application process. According to monster.com, you’ll get a 75% completion rate this way, versus 20% if the candidate has to fill in the application from scratch.
4. Instant response. Make sure you’ve set up your automatic searches to bring this person to the top of the list by screening on performance terms, not just skill words. Email me if you don’t know how to do this, but the point here is you must call the person within 24 hours of applying. Speed is of the essence when recruiting semi-active candidates. You’ll know you’re too slow if the candidate says she’s taken another job by the time you called.
5. Massively upgraded career web site. Most company websites are designed to eliminate unqualified candidates, not to attract the best. A career website is the critical hub of a company’s hiring efforts. A survey of over 500 candidates we took a few years ago showed that about 65% of all candidates checked out a company’s web site before applying for a job that they found on a job board. Half decided not to apply because the career section was poorly designed. Even passive candidates will check out a company’s career web site before getting too serious about a job. If your career website is weak, you’re probably losing good candidates for easily corrected reasons.

Sourcing Ideas for Semi-Passive Candidates

You might want to try these ideas in parallel. They’ll help you hire more of the best semi-passive candidates available.

1. Compelling advertising offering better jobs and better careers. A good job is not enough to attract semi-passive candidates. They’re looking for a career move that will enable them to obtain four to five years of growth in only two or three years. This is a great pitch if you can prove it, but watch out. Once you get a semi-passive candidate into your game, she’ll find some competing jobs using the simple Google search process described above.
2. Implement a proactive employee referral program. Ask your best people for the names of the best people they’ve ever worked with. Then call these people and recruit them. They’ll listen if you have a better job and a better career to offer. Don’t bother making the call if it’s just another job.
3. Become a targeted networking fanatic. How many people are you connected with directly on LinkedIn who are potential candidates for your open jobs, or know them personally? If you’re not a power user on LinkedIn, JigSaw, and ZoomInfo, you’re not networked enough to hire semi-passive people. I talked to an agency recruiter last week who makes one $100,000 placement per week in one narrow field and gets a $25,000 fee for each one. Everybody in the industry knows he is the best in his field. He’s my prototypical fanatic.
4. Get your hiring managers committed and involved. You can’t source and recruit top semi-passive candidates alone. Hiring managers must take the lead role here. This means they must clearly understand real job needs; they’re willing to spend time conducting exploratory meetings; they conduct in-depth interviews; they know how to recruit and close, not just sell and charm; and they can point to other top people who they have developed.

We’re undergoing a major increase in workforce mobility. To compensate for this, every aspect of your hiring process must change if you want to hire and retain more top people. Retention is now as important as hiring. But you can’t solve one problem without solving both.

The solution is to offer great jobs that grow and change with the person. While this effort starts by posting more compelling jobs, it certainly doesn’t end there. But that’s still a great start.