A large chunk of workers would accept a lower salary in exchange for the opportunity to work from home, according to a recent survey by Citrix Online. About 21% of respondents said they’d take a 5% pay cut if they could telecommute one or two days a week.

In these days of limited staffing budgets, that could give employers some option for cutting wages. It could also be a way to attract talent when you have little room for salary negotiations.

Some other findings from the survey:

• 75% of employees want the freedom to work remotely.
• 56% have never been able to telecommute.
• Managers’ most common arguments against telecommuting include: Job duties demand office attendance (cited by 38% of managers), remote work hurts relationship-building (19%) and productivity will decline if employees work from home (15%).

These are the 10 best sites for recruiters and job seekers, according to a recent article in PC magazine:

1. Beyond.com – A combination of smaller, niche job boards that each focus on a different industry, job type or geographic area.
2. Careerbuilder.com – Though some HR experts recommend shifting money away from the big, general boards and toward more focused sites, CareerBuilder still gets more than 23 million visitors a month. That’s a lot of job candidates.
3. Craigslist.org – It’s not a very polished site, and some of the listings seem less than legitimate, but posting an ad to Craigslist is free in most areas, so experts say there’s little reason not to use it.
4. Execu-search.com – A site focused on recruiting upper level employees.
5. Hound.com – Hound lets candidates search through jobs listed on employer Web sites.
6. JobServe.com – Claiming to be the world’s first online recruiting service, JobServe advertised 2.5 million positions in 2008.
7. Jobster.com – Combining a job board with a social networking site, Jobster lets candidates create detailed profiles to help employers find and learn more about them.
8. LinkedIn.com – From searching through users’ profiles to posting job listings, LinkedIn provides a variety of ways to find candidates.
9. TheLadders.com – Only lists jobs that pay more than $100k a year, and charges job seekers to use the site.
10. SnagAJob.com – Basically the opposite of ExecSearch and TheLadders, SnagAJob focuses exclusively on hourly jobs.

What recruiting sites do you recommend? Share your advice in the comments section below.

Social networking Web sites.

Many HR managers think social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn are the new tool most likely to lead to better quality hires, according to a recent survey by PBP Media and Standout Jobs.

When asked which new trend will provide the best improvement to their recruiting process, the HR managers surveyed answered:

• social networking (33%)
• candidate relationship management tools (26%)
• search engine optimization for job listings (20%)
• blogs (5%)
• online video (5%)
• Twitter (2%)
• pay-per-click advertising (2%), and
• other (7%)

One other recruiting tool more companies are relying on this year: their current employees.

When asked where they plan to increase spending and focus in 2009, the top two responses: 22% of HR managers said referral programs, and 17% said internal transfers.

In today’s economy, many companies are working with tight recruiting budgets. That’s why now is the perfect time to revisit some tried and true ways to attract talent without spending a lot — or sacrificing the quality of new hires.

Just look around. HR departments already have plenty of resources available — the company’s Web site, current employees, alumni, etc. What’s working best today?

Here are some of the top low-cost strategies experts recommend:

1. Blogs – Ask employees to write blog posts about what it’s like to work at your company. Also, find out if any of them contribute to other blogs related to their professions. If so, they can include some positive words about your organization.
2. Alumni employees – Especially in this rough economy, your company may have some ex-employees who are regretting their decision to leave and will be happy to come back on board if they’re contacted. Bonus: You already know about their performance and cultural fit.
3. Referrals from new hires – New employees are often the best source for referrals because they’re coming straight from a different company. During orientation, ask them for the names of former colleagues who are qualified and might be interested in a position.
4. Top candidates who turned down the offer – At one point or another, most companies have offered a job to the best candidate, only to have the offer turned down. After some time has passed, you can get back in touch with the candidate and re-sell the position or describe a new opportunity that’s available.
5. Industry associations – Ask top employees, managers and execs to get involved in organizations related to your industry. That will raise the company’s profile and provide priceless networking events.

What low-cost recruiting strategies have worked best at your company? Share your experience and advice in the comments section below.

Talk to the people doing similar jobs now. Show them a description that’s been written, or ask them questions before you write one. First of all, it’ll help with accuracy – after all, you don’t want it to be completely off base from what the new hire will actually be doing.

And, more importantly from a recruiting standpoint, you want to find out what your employees like about that job – and your company – so you can emphasize that when you advertise.

Focus on top performers and those who have been with the company for a while. Find out what attracted them to the field in the first place, and what brought them to your company specifically. Talk about things like company culture, pay, work environment, etc., and ask what specifically has kept them on board.

It’s true that what’s important to one person may not matter to anyone else, but if you talk to a few people you’ll get a decent sense of what people in that field are looking for.

Companies see a lot of benefits from telecommuting, such as attracting better and more productive workers, according to a recent survey by the Computing Technology Industry association.

The top benefits employers reported:

• More productivity when commutes are eliminated (67%)
• Cost savings because less energy and office space is used (59%)
• Access to a wider pool of qualified staff (39%)
• Higher retention rates (37%)
• Better employee health through reduced stress (25%)