Page 137 - Retaining Top Employees

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Recruiting for Retention 125

economic and demographic changes in the workplace, particu-
larly the following:
• The rise in employee mobility
• The availability of inexpensive communications and com-
puter networking technologies
• The rise in working single parents
• Pressure on employers to minimize costs.

Responding to these pressures, employers aiming to recruit
for retention have developed several versions of core employee
status that don’t require that employees work in a specific place
and/or at a specific time: telecommuting, job sharing, and the
compressed workweek.
Telecommuting. Telecommuting gives employees all the bene-
fits of core employee status, but frees them to work at a place
or time of their own choosing. The telecommuting model works
best with these types of jobs:
• Non-team-based positions. Collaborative technologies
such as videoconferencing cannot yet fully replace face-
to-face interaction, although computer technology will
eventually overcome this limitation.
• Administrative positions. Jobs involving intensive interac-
tion with computer databases are ideal for telecommuting.
• Sales and marketing
activities. Where it’s Forms Processing
possible (and per- In the late ’70s,many U.S.-
haps desirable) for based insurance companies
employees to set started using the telecommuting
model for intensive off-site forms
their own schedules
processing. Many companies estab-
for visiting cus-
lished large forms processing net-
tomers, clients, or works based in Southern Ireland,tak-
other company sites, ing advantage of the difference in time
telecommuting is zones to allow access to their com-
ideal. puter databases during the cheaper
(and less busy) night hours.
If you’re going to use