Welcome back to the second half of this two-part article. Last time, we talked about how the job market has changed drastically in the last few years. With the rapid advance of mobile technology and the remote work possibilities that has opened up, employers have found themselves in a war for talent. While the number of people in the traditional application and interview cycles may be shrinking, there are ample professionals to be found in non-traditional job pools. Join us today as we look at how the professional population has shifted and how to hire top talent your competition isn’t considering.

Stay-at-Home Parents

Boomers worked hard and many Millennials follow the tradition of latch-key kids who let themselves in after school and wait for their parents to come home. Boomer parents missed sports games, concerts, rehearsals, and parent-teacher nights because their employers expected them to. But with the freedom of tech professionals to work from their home computer, Millennials are able to have their cake and eat it too. Remote work allows young parents to stay home with their babies and toddlers while still getting a few contract hours in each day during nap and play time.

Professionals who quit office work to stay at home with their children almost inevitably get bored and want to come back by the time their children are old enough to go to Pre-K, but they don’t want to be gone during those crucial mornings and after school hours. The best way to recruit highly skilled professionals who are now parents is to offer very flexible hours with an option to both come in on a schedule and to work remotely during nap times. This way, you can negotiate for their maximum productive hours and help them get back into the workforce as their child becomes school-aged.

Disabled Professionals

If there is any single demographic that has benefitted the most from remote work and recent workplace trends, it’s professionals with disabilities. Remote positions have allowed people who can’t easily get to and from an office the ability to be an active and respected part of the workforce. In many cases, their fellow remote workers may not even realize that a particular professional is disabled. The recent talent-luring trends in workplaces have also been a benefit as it becomes easier to get the accommodation disabled professionals may need.

Many companies overlook the value of making their positions more appealing to disabled workers, but when hiring, it makes perfect sense. There are a large number of highly skilled disabled professionals in the tech industry, a place that is exceptionally well suited to people with mobility limitations. There are two ways to effectively recruit more disabled professionals. The first is easy, simply create more completely remote positions. You can also make a name for yourself by renovating your workplace with more accommodations for disabilities.

Retirees

Modern healthcare has also changed the game when it comes to second careers and professionals who have recently retired. Many seniors today are going back to work after their initial retirement vacation. At some point, they catch up on their reading, make a few birdhouses, and get bored. They start itching to string cables and configure servers again and the only thing stopping them is fear of rejection from employers who don’t want to hire someone over 60.

But your positions are open, waiting for someone with decades of experience the Millennials just don’t have yet, and there are your professionals wishing they still had interesting industry work to do. Consider starting a program for retired IT professionals with the same kind of flexible hours perks you’re using to tempt Millennials away from their freelancing and homemaking. You may just find yourself with a steady supply of highly skilled and interested retirees who are back to work as their retirement hobby.

Working Vacationers

Finally, there are the clever Millennials who have figured out how to work just enough to fund a constant working vacation. Whether they’re just hanging out watching videos at home or jet-setting across the country (depends on motivation and pay scale), these professionals work for themselves. They are personally motivated by their own goals, dreams, relationships, and interests. Many of them are self-taught but highly skilled in their specialized fields and most of them work freelance or as a remote member of a small Millennial-founded agency.

These are the ‘Unicorns’ that most companies are bending over backward to attract. In reality, it’s relatively easy to lure a freelancer back to the workforce as long as you know who you’re talking to and what they personally want from life. Your best bet is to make your positions look and feel like freelancer jobs at first. Let them have their freedom or, if you want them in the office, make the office like the lifestyle they value. By appealing to their personal motivations, you can simply draw freelancers wherever you need them. Like butterflies with impressive network security skills.

The Network Editorial Team