Are you recruiter enough to handle a MILH?
Are you recruiter enough to handle a MILH like me?
Sorry guys, but MILH’s (A Mom I’d like to Hire) are the evolution of the human. They have figured out how to be 
educated, innovative, and articulate, keep up to date on their industry, balance a life, an amazing career (that’s right Career, not job) and be a great mom!
We have heard so much about the Boomers and Millennial’s and the impact they are having on organizations – but seriously – why isn’t anyone talking about the MILH’s? (To be more PC, which I HATE BTW, I will from here on out call them Hybrid Moms) There are thousands of them out there right now – more qualified than the junk resumes coming off the job boards – sitting waiting to be tapped on the shoulder by a company that wants to make them an offer they can’t refuse. AND…let me let you in on a secret….MILH’s don’t care all that much about the $$ -they care about their hours, their impact and their role – which in these times, makes them an AMAZING find – IF you know how to sell them back to your organization.
How do I know it can be done? Well, before becoming a Hybrid Mom/MILH… I was a damn good recruiter. I was the type of recruiter that got recruited into the corporate world to train other recruiters on how to do kick ass now and take names later type of recruiting. My first week of college I happened to have lunch with a recruiter from Arthur Andersen who started talking about his job – I started to fall in love (with his job – not him!) Hearing about the rush of the search, the thrill of a placement and gaining the understanding that each and every day what you do shapes the future of an organization was an emotional rush, exhilarating and it gave me butterflies – like meeting your first love, or a giant brownie turtle sundae topped with whip cream and a cherry after a week on the South Beach Diet.
It was that day I was chosen by the universe to come into the recruiting world.
However, I was not always a Hybrid Mom. I was just a normal employee & mom. The one who came back to work the day after getting out of the hospital from having my baby and had a husband that stayed home to do the cooking & cleaning (Seriously – It happened!) kind of employee. One who missed out on the first steps and the colic (wait – is that really a bad thing?!?) and the other things that I only watched on video because she worked 60+ hours a week and traveled like a stewardess, type of employee.
However, I was fortunate to work for and with a few really innovative companies that embraced the idea of flexible scheduling (For everyone except recruiting) and I was constantly on the lookout for MILH’s, I mean Hybrid Mom’s, and I watched other companies (and recruiters) pass up amazingly qualified women because they wanted more flexibility such as working at home a few days a week or a part time schedule. I listened to the other recruiters (those without kids) laugh at the idea that someone could actually have a meaningful role in an organization and work part time. It was then I started to see the business case for Hybrid Moms – the impact they can have on an organization and the $$’s they can save the bottom line. If you can have a MORE qualified employee who wants to make LESS money and not get involved in all the office gossip/politics, but just do their job – think of the productivity!! In 2005 I was laying in the hospital on bed rest with my 2nd baby, working on a statistical analysis of an organization’s turnover reporting and realizing that working that hard kinda sucked. It was that day – I became a MILH/Hybrid Mom.
Now, I feel like the queen of the MILH’s. The next generation of Hybrid Mom. I am a SAHM (For all of you not in the mommy brigade – that means Stay at Home Mom) that just happens to have a pretty sick position as Chief Strategy Officer of HRMDirect while the kids are in school. I can’t imagine a better situation than what I have. I love driving the kids to school, coming home and knowing that I can work in my pajamas and it doesn’t matter – or that I can hit the gym at 11 for Pilates because I have a mental road block or I can take a relaxing shower to think through a tough decision (now you are just getting jealous so I will stop). But it also means that I can work at 11 pm after the kids are in bed if they had a school play or I went on a field trip and that I never stop thinking about work. When I decided to leave the consulting world this Spring I knew I had two options. Be a SAHM or find another job that let me be a Hybrid Mom. So my primary objective was to continue to lead the double life of a SAHM and MILH – I love being a part of my kids lives but I HATED being part of the scrapbooking club and doing “stroller workouts” that the other SAHM’s in the neighborhood did.
Why should you want to hire a MILH/Hybrid Mom? Simple – Hybrid moms are the answer to some of your recruiting & budget challenges. We MILH’s are waiting to take your jobs – if your company is savvy enough to attract them! However, most recruiters are like my coworkers from so long ago – thinking that someone who wants to work part time is lazy or has no passion & drive. We are educated, experienced, work harder in 4-6 hours a day than most of the staff works in 8-10, are loyal to the company and (from a company’s perspective) are cheap – we typically want 25-30% less than someone working just a few hours more a week. Social networking sites like Twitter (See twittermoms.com), Facebook and the ever popular mom board Babycenter.com and ParentCenter.com will open the doors to a whole new world of candidates that aren’t even out there applying, but are more qualified than what is coming across your desk – IF your company can convince them to come on board and YOU can convince your company of the overall business value. If you can’t – then the superstar talent will pass you up and kick ass for your competition…
So, I will ask again…Can you Mr. Recruiter handle a MILH like me?
About Sarah White:
Sarah White is Chief Strategy Officer for HRMDirect, Guru at FindHRInfo.com (launching this summer), writer of Gen Y’d blog on ERE, author for various blogs/websites and overall is just an always interesting, frequently random, often unfiltered, sometimes goofy, occasionally genius and never apologetic type of girl who loves flip-flops. She is a proud mom to 2 amazingly smart and talented children, has a boxer named Kona and loves music, martinis (and wine) and anything out doors (Hiking, Rafting, Camping…)! She has been involved in the HR/Recruiting World for more than 10 years and has a degree in (I will stop – its not like you really even cared about the boring stuff!)
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