I continue to hear people mention how difficult it is to find employees in the current hiring environment. This seems particularly true when business owners feel they need compete with larger organizations like HP, Simplot, or Micron.

I was visiting with a friend this morning and we were talking about working with the big guys and he mentioned several things that caused me to think about the benefits associated with working for one of the little guys. Seriously, how many big company jobs allow an employee to work on two, three or more very different tasks on any given afternoon? How many big company opportunities include constant change and significant job flexibility? When I was working for Intel two years ago I spent my entire day boxed in a cubicle working on a very specific job. I had little interaction with co-workers unless it was over the phone and even less task flexibility. I was there to do a very finite job day in and day out.

It was this experience that convinced me that regardless of the health plans, stock options, and a good salary I wanted something different. Among other things, I wanted change, I wanted more responsibility and I wanted to feel like my contribution meant something. Fortunately I found that opportunity and by working for small businesses, so have many others. Small business owners can attract key talent by highlighting their flexibility when working with employees versus their much larger counterparts. Focus on the benefits of working in a smaller, more adaptable company and you’ll be in good shape.

Jake Lunt is the General Manager of Idaho operations for A Plus Benefits, Inc.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 at 2:14 pm and is filed under Benefits, Compensation, Hiring, Retention. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.