Chances are you have heard company managers lament the difficulty of finding and keeping good employees for their businesses. Those managers are not just chronic complainers. The metropolitan areas of Kentucky are knee-deep in what some call a job candidates’ market. That basically means there are more jobs available than there are qualified candidates to fill them. A market like this works in favor of those seeking employment.

"That has been the case for probably over three years in this area," says Barbara Jane "Janey" Moores, president and chief executive officer of B.J.M. & Associates, Inc., an employment and job counseling agency located in Central Kentucky. The agency works with both companies and individuals.

"Lexington is very unique," says Moores. "We’ve got a great economic climate here. We have always had more good jobs available here than most anywhere in the United States. That is working in favor of the job candidates at this point."

Unemployment statistics

In fact, unemployment rates are low statewide. The Kentucky Department for Employment Services tracks labor market information both statewide and for each of Kentucky’s 120 counties.

Preliminary estimates for June 1999 show the unemployment rate for the Lexington Metropolitan Area at a low 2.1 percent. The comparable rate for the Louisville Metropolitan Area is 4.0 percent. Both are lower than the United States’ comparable rate of 4.5 percent.

For that same month last year, the U.S. comparable unemployment rate stood at 4.7 percent while the Lexington Metropolitan Service Area measured 2.4 percent and the Louisville Metropolitan Service Area measured 3.6 percent.

The annual unemployment rate average for 1998 was 4.6 percent statewide as compared to 2.2 percent in the Lexington area and 3.3 percent in the Louisville area.

Businesses respond

So what are company owners and managers to do? Moores says they should focus on three crucial components.

First, attention must be paid to recruiting and hiring. Moores says companies are getting serious about having an actual written job description "so that everybody knows what you’re looking for." Traditional methods of filling vacancies are still used, but companies are finding they must be more aggressive in recruitment.

"Stores and businesses can hardly advertise their products or service for having to put their ‘help wanted’ banners across the front of their windows," notes Moores. "They need to get really creative on what they’re going to do to attract people and keep them for a long period of time."

Many companies are beginning to rely less on recruitment methods such as newspaper advertisements, adds Moores. Some -- especially small companies without human resources departments -- are finding that they need professional assistance.

"It takes someone on a full-time basis to get the best people," says Moores. "They (company owners and managers) really need to turn their talents to what they do best."

Some recruitment tools are obvious. In a market such as this, companies must have an attractive group benefits package and competitive salaries. Those two aspects of a job have always been critical.

"That’s not to say that you always should throw money at the problem and that’ll correct it because that’s not true," explains Moores. "People need to feel like they are part of the process, that their input is going to be given some weight in decisions that the company makes, in improvements that they make to their product or service delivery."

And employees want some job autonomy, says Moores.

"They’re going to want to have some responsibility where someone is not always looking over their shoulder directing them. They want to be able to work with a little more independence," she explains.

As a result, companies must focus on that second crucial component: training. Moores points out that companies benefit when their employees are trained "to think like the business owner or manager."

Employee motivation is the third critical component to attracting and retaining good employees, according to Moores.

"That third leg is the key to it all," Moores emphasizes.

How does one motivate employees? It used to be done -- and in some companies still is -- by posh perks like a company car or membership privileges at a country club. But if profit margins are tight, company owners and managers must find less expensive and more creative ways to motivate employees.

Many companies are using benefits such as non-cash bonuses or additional paid time off from work, according to Moores. Toyota Motor Manufacturing Company, for example, encourages perfect attendance by placing the names of employees with perfect attendance into a drawing for a new Toyota Camry.

"They really get all the mileage they can out of that type of employee motivation," says Moores.

There are less dramatic ways to enhance employee motivation, such as additional paid time off if company goals are met. "Some companies give as much as a week off with pay above and beyond regular benefits for meeting company goals," she adds. "It seems that people are more and more interested in paid time off," she said.

Then there are less expensive or elaborate perks, like taking employees out to lunch to reward good work or allowing them to use reserved parking spaces for performances above and beyond the norm.

The Hewlett Packard experience

Hewlett Packard’s Louisville office is relatively small, with approximately 30 employees. The company’s headquarters is located in Palo Alto, California.

Dan Romaniak, communications manager for Hewlett Packard’s Geographic Operations, says his company does annual surveys to ensure that its employee benefit programs are competitive with other similar companies.

In addition, Hewlett Packard executives meet and have roundtable discussions with executives from competing businesses "to examine each others’ programs."

"It’s a way to kind of look at overall trends for the organization," explains Romaniak.

The Louisville office primarily employs people with electrical engineering, business, or computer science degrees, according to Romaniak. It attempts to retain those employees by offering not only competitive salaries and benefits, but also perks like flexible time off from work.

"We’re big believers in work/life balance," notes Romaniak. "We try to make it a win-win situation."

In addition, the company offers employees what Romaniak calls "the latest and greatest" in technology. Some of that technology allows employees to occasionally work from home while maintaining contact with the office.

"We try to give people competitive salaries, competitive benefits and treat them with respect," Romaniak explains. "We do have a company that believes in trust and responsibility for employees."

The Lexmark experience

Lexmark, located in Lexington, has altered its employee recruitment methods to keep pace with the times. The company relies less and less on traditional recruitment methods and more and more on high-tech recruitment.

"We are seeing far less need to use newspapers or headhunter firms," says Lesley Sizemore-Hardin, manager of recruiting for Lexmark.

Instead, the company is turning its attention toward the Internet. It uses sites like Hotjobs.com, Monster.com and Career Mosaic.com to find future employees.

Lexmark officials identify a job where they are seeking candidates and give the Internet site a detailed job description along with e-mail addresses for the company recruiters. They allow the job candidate to send his or her resume to them directly.

"Turnaround is very quick," says Sizemore-Hardin, noting that the average time frame is around 48 hours. "Lexmark is trying to attract people who are technology-savvy. So why not use this medium?"

In addition to the quick turnaround and the ability to interact with the candidate, Sizemore-Hardin says using the Internet to seek job candidates bears "a minimal cost." Placing a job description online usually doesn’t cost more than $150 to $200, she notes.

Lexmark does, however, still use some traditional recruitment methods. Recruiters attend a variety of collegiate career fairs, which "has proven to be successful without efforts to identify and attract entry-level employees," Sizemore-Hardin notes.

Once they find the right candidate and make the hire, Lexmark uses a variety of perks to ensure that the employee will want to stay.

"We find that we have a compelling story to tell," she explained. "We are one of the few high-tech companies in the Bluegrass. We offer an environment where a young engineer can be empowered, can be as creative as he or she desires and have access to the executives who are the decision-makers."

Sizemore-Hardin points out that while people sometimes leave jobs to expand their experiences, "at Lexmark -- because we have our headquarters here -- people can have multiple careers all while staying at Lexmark."

A word of warning

So while job candidates now have the upper hand over employers, Moores offers some gentle words of warning: Don’t think you can make job switches indiscriminately.

"There comes a certain time when it’s time to put down some roots," Moores emphasizes. "Nothing becomes more unimpressive to a prospective employer than figuring, ‘if I get 24 months out of this person, that’ll probably be the longest they’ve ever stayed on any job.’ They’re probably going to pass over that application and move on to someone else."

Lisa Summers is a staff writer for The Lane Report.