Buoyed by a good education system, low costs and a falling crime rate, Pittsburgh has placed fourth on Forbes magazine’s annual list of the nation’s best cities for working mothers. The rankings were based on a survey that weighed women’s income, cost of living, availability of pediatricians, safety, employment and spending on education.

As the economy turns the corner, more employees are looking over the fence to see if the grass is greener elsewhere. “For the first time since 2008, we’re seeing more people quitting than being laid off,” Jamie Miner, president of The Right Thing recruiting firm, says. “Employers need to be thinking now about how to create a strategy to recruit.”

Vouchers for compact fluorescent light bulbs and rooftop solar panels have taken their place next to health insurance and flextime as popular employee benefits. Young job-seekers want to work for socially responsible, environmentally friendly companies. That’s one reason more companies have begun offering “green” employee benefits.

Replacing employees is costly enough without frittering away your recruiting dollars on advertising that either doesn’t reach the desired candidates or results in bad hires. Too many employers take a shotgun approach, placing ads on several sites without obtaining data to help make the right choice. To get the best value for your ad dollars, ask job-board sales reps these questions:

Employees of Newark, Del.-based W.L. Gore & Associates are drafting new colleagues—by starring as themselves in videos about the company on a recruiting web site. The maker of GORE-TEX waterproof breathable fabrics and other textile, industrial and medical products enlisted employees for its “Join Gore & Change Your Life” campaign.

More than 400,000 U.S. citizens retire or separate from the military every year—and most of them look for jobs when they do. Companies such as Union Pacific Railroad, GE and Home Depot actively recruit veterans. Your organization could probably benefit from hiring military veterans. To attract them, align your recruiting and employee benefits with their needs.

Employers seeking Internet-savvy candidates have been flocking to social media sites in the past year. But employers (and their lawyers) are discovering a hidden problem in that recruiting-by-Facebook strategy: Depending too much on the sites could leave your organization vulnerable to age and race discrimination lawsuits. Heavy use of social networking sites may skew your job applicant pool to contain few minorities and older people.

Discrimination against employees because of their family caregiving duties has become a hotbed for litigation against employers, and every indication is that this trend will continue. So it’s critical for employers to recognize the potential for liability and take necessary steps to avoid being the next defendant. Here's how.

Ohio fared well in a recent Forbes magazine ranking of how hospitable the nation’s 50 largest cities are to working moms. Cincinnati ranked the nation’s sixth-best metro area for working mothers, while Columbus came in 13th.

With so many companies focused on downsizing to contain costs in a down economy, many employers have failed to prepare for a pending change that will significantly alter workforce demographics. Beginning in 2011, the first of the baby boomers will turn 65. As the rest of the roughly 70 million baby boomers follow, we’ll see a major shift in the age of our society—and our workforces. This shift will have a significant impact on employers.

If you have a robust college-student recruiting program, make sure you consider students from all age groups for your open positions—co-op and internship programs, too. That way, other employees can’t point to your college-student recruiting program as direct evidence of age bias.