Telecommuting – Tapping into the hidden talent pool
Marissa Mayer, President and Chief Executive Officer of Yahoo!, has been in the news recently for making a significant change to the Yahoo! corporate culture by eliminating the option for employees to work from home or telecommute. Many of Yahoo!’s employees joined the company based on their flexible telecommuting policies and, as could be expected, a large portion of these employees revolted because of the decision. While the case of Yahoo! is the most high profile example of the debate surrounding telecommuting currently, other businesses and organisations sit on the other side of the fence and wholeheartedly support employees who wish to work remotely.
In Australia, the Federal Government is encouraging workplaces to investigate their options for telecommuting with Senator Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, spruiking the benefits of telecommuting including lower costs, higher productivity, increased workplace flexibility, reduced impact on the environment and, importantly, expanded supply of skilled labour.
This increase in the supply of skilled labour is particularly important to employers across the country. For every difficult vacancy that goes unfilled, there is a vast, untapped talent pool of candidates with the skills you need to grow your business who are not currently in the job market because of the (perceived or actual) lack of flexible working options.
How can you tap into this hidden talent pool? The first thing you’ll need to do is make sure that your vacancy advertising explicitly mentions telecommuting or working from home. If you’re using keyword optimised job boards such as Seek or CareerOne, ensure that these keywords are in the Short Descriptions and Search Result Title. This will ensure that candidates who search using the keywords ‘telecommute’ or ‘work from home’ will find your vacancy quickly and easily.
Don’t forget to market the benefits of telecommuting to your potential candidates. While using telecommuting as a keyword will boost search results for candidates exclusively looking for telecommuting opportunities, other candidates who are interested in your vacancy because it suits their skillset will still appreciate the flexibility that your organisation offers their employees.
There are also numerous benefits your organisation will enjoy by offering telecommuting to employees. Peter Walton, Chief Executive Officer of Infoxchange and an outspoken advocate for telecommuting, often mentions the reduction in staff absenteeism, improvements in employee morale and the significant reduction in annual staff turnover. Infoxchange employees performing call centre roles from home have less than 10% annual staff turnover while annual employee turnover in a call centre can be as high as 80%.
Telecommuting isn’t for everyone and it isn’t for every role but, if you’ve been struggling with a vacancy, it might be worth your consideration as an option to expand that reach into the candidate marketplace. If you would like to learn more about developing a targeted recruitment advertising campaign that spans multiple advertising channels and widens your reach into the market, call Employment Office at 1300 366 573 and ask to speak with your account manager.
