What Today's Job Seekers Want

Despite the tough job market, they’re still passionate and selective

October 20, 2010 RSS Feed Print

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[See 5 Ways Employers Could Improve the Hiring Process.]

Is paternity leave becoming a more common work benefit?

Anecdotally, we think it's becoming more common ... as you see women taking greater roles in the workforce, an emphasis on paternity leave is more common as the load is being shared more equally.

Self-employment is an interesting area because when you have a situation where workers have more and more choice, the lines between what it means to be self-employed become more and more blurred. People start out remotely or more project-based ... more than a third of people said they'd consider starting their own company, and 28 percent said they would definitely [start their own company]. The other aspect is working on a contract or more project-based basis [60 percent of respondents said they would rather work from home doing contract jobs for various companies than work full-time in an office for one company.] They say they [want to] do this because they can do a job they like. Others say they want to work from home.

Sixty percent of survey respondents said they'd like to telecommute. How are companies responding to employees' desire to work from home?

We definitely see more and more emphasis on jobs that either have it as a component, or jobs that are essentially an opportunity to work remotely ... certainly we live in a more global economy overall and have more remote teams ... related to that march of technology, it is playing a significant role. The fact is that we live in a world where if you want to stay connected, you can by E-mail, gchat, and video conferencing opportunities that are available. All of these things allow us to stay connected in ways that are more convenient. The notion of having to be in the same place at the same time—while many recognize the benefits of that, on a day-to-day basis, people who work at home are more productive and have more satisfaction overall with their careers ... Workers can take on projects and they're judged on their work rather than sitting in an office and doing work. That speaks to a level of empowerment we're seeing.