With the process of hiring and keeping the rest employeesan increasing challenge, here are tipsfrom three experienced leaders that might help.

Bill Gates once said: “The competitionto hire the best will increase in the yearsahead. Companies that give extra flexibility to their employees will have theedge in this area.”

Looking into the economics of it,Marcel Schwantes discoveredthat the average person can save between $4,668 and $5,688 per year by workingremotely, including over $1400 for gas and maintenance. 

Indeed, FlexJobs, the premierjob service for telecommuting and remote job listings, conducted astudy to make the strong case that working remotely is the future of work. Thecompany’s fourth annual Super Survey onMillennials found that:

• 84 percent want more work-life balance.
• 67 percent indicate family is the reason for their desire for flexible work.
• 60 percent want to save more time.
• 49 percent want to save money.
• 48 percent are looking to ditch commute stress.
• 85 percent want to telecommute 100 percent of the time.
• 54 percent want to work a flexible or alternative schedule.

Steve Jobs stated that: “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”

His approach was tointentionally hire bright people, get the heck out of their way, andgive them room to build great things. That meant enrolling them in ashared vision, giving them the resources, autonomy, andflexibility to do the job. Once they know what to do, they’ll figureout how to do it. 

Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, observed that “you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if you don’t have the first, the other two will kill you. You think about it; it’s true. If you hire somebody without integrity, you really want them to be dumb and lazy.”

Clearly, knowledge workers need intelligence;and energy fuels passion and motivation. Integrity enables colleagues andcustomers to see workers as dependable and accountable for their actions,enabling team trust.

These are the opinions of these threeleaders. What are the major leadership traits that you seek in hiring peopleand promoting workers? Share with us.