May the Season Bring You Peace and Love that Passes All Understanding

More productive work time, and Less non-productive face time.

Companies Getting More Creative To Relocate Unwilling Execs
CLO - Magazine

Radnor, Pa. — Dec. 10
With executives increasingly reluctant to relocate for a new job, employers are being forced to become more proactive and creative in their efforts to persuade top talent to move for a new position, according to Salveson Stetson Group, a full-service retained executive search firm.

“Over the last decade or so — and especially since 9/11 — it has become increasingly challenging to get employees to relocate for a job,” said Sally Stetson, co-founder and principal of Salveson Stetson Group. “Not only does the position need to be compelling, but candidates are requiring the total relocation package to be outstanding, as well.”

One new wrinkle having a major impact on relocations is the current depressed state of the housing market, said John Salveson, co-founder and principal with Salveson Stetson Group. “One of the first questions we often hear from an executive presented with a relocation opportunity is, ‘Great, but will they buy my house?’”

Companies interested in moving an executive may find that part of the price needs to include the purchase of the candidate’s home, or creative funding to compensate for the poor real estate market, Salveson said.

Other trends that relocating candidates are likely to see from companies courting them include:

• A strong push to pre-sell the new location. “Companies are finding they must become much more proactive in helping candidates understand the features and benefits of a new city or community,” said Stetson. “It’s important that a job candidate get a full picture of the quality of life in the new location early in the process. Employers don’t want to find at the eleventh hour that a candidate is never going to warm up to a new region of the country.”

• An effort to identify and engage all stakeholders in the decision to relocate. “It’s important for employers to identify all of the parties who are participating in the decision to relocate,” said Salveson. “Is it the candidate? The candidate’s spouse or partner? Both of them? Many employers have discovered too late the veto power that a high school junior can hold over a decision to uproot an entire family.”

• Employers’ willingness to consider telecommuting as an alternative for employees who are unwilling to relocate. As the talent shortage intensifies, more employers are considering flexible arrangements that don’t always require executives to work out of the headquarters location, Stetson said. But, she added, employees often end up traveling more in order to have “face time” with their employer and colleagues.


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Telecommuting Found to Be Stress Reliever

11.20.07
by Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Tired of traffic jams, late trains, packed buses? Telecommuting can be a big plus for workers and employers because it boosts morale and job satisfaction and cuts stress, researchers said on Monday.

In an analysis of 46 studies on telecommuting, researchers found that working away from the office by using computers, cell phones or other electronic equipment can have more pluses than negatives for people and the companies that employ them.

"Our results show that telecommuting has an overall beneficial effect because the arrangement provides employees with more control over how they do their work," said Dr Ravi Gajendran of Pennsylvania State University.

"Telecommuting seems to have some mildly positive effects on employee morale, on work-family balance and on stress," he added in an interview.

Gajendran and David Harrison, who reported their findings in the journal of Applied Psychology, studied data on 12,833 telecommuters who spend time working away from the office.

Telecommuting has been a growing trend in the United States since about 2000. Last year an estimated 45 million Americans telecommuted, an increase of 4 million from 2003, according to the magazine WorldatWork.

Gajendran believes the numbers will continue to grow as access to broadband increases.

"Over the last couple of years there has been a spike, especially in the number of people who are regularly telecommuting. By regularly I mean people who are telecommuting at least once a month," he said.

"There has almost been a 60 percent increase in those numbers."

Although some companies and workers feared telecommuting could hamper career prospects or lead to a breakdown in relationships with managers and co-workers, the researchers found no evidence to support it.

"Telecommuting by and large does not have any negative relational outcomes as has been commonly believed," said Gajendran.

There was also no evidence that telecommuting stymied career development.

Telecommuting also has added benefits, according to the researchers, because it cuts commuting costs and relieves congestion on inner city transport systems, as well as traffic on roads.

"If you could save a long commute, say two days a week or maybe even one, you will see substantial costs saving as well as substantial reductions in terms of pollution," Gajendran explained.

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