Summer is around the corner, temperatures are heating up, and teens are getting ready for that quintessential rite of passage: the summer job. But times have changed.

So before the latest sparring partners take to their cubicles...a few words of advice to the newly minted graduates and the experienced folks they'll be working with.

Hosted by Mobile Work Exchange, Cisco, and Citrix, Telework Week 2013 attracted people with more force than ever before.

You're already paying them to do a job. Why not educate them so they can do it better? It doesn't have to cost you a lot of money -- and the dividends you'll gain are incalculable.

What motivators could be instituted that may not cost a dime but bring enrichment and enlightenment to those that are feeling burnt out, underappreciated, or just plain bored?

Sometimes I think we read about and discuss workforce trends and challenges through a myopic lens. For example, a company is launching a particular initiative which may serve as an interesting anecdote, but doesn't address the issue at large or the way the issue is perceived by the general population.

Any nation that can't provide the basics, such as an educated workforce, especially in STEM fields, surely stands to lose out in this globally competitive economy.

There may be no better opportunity or context within which to include on the agenda a substantive and inclusive conversation about the social responsibility of corporations.

More and more of the talent pool are divorcing themselves from career-for-life commitments. They are moving towards a more flexible and increasingly virtual lifestyle. By some estimates, this group already accounts for one-third of the U.S. talent pool.