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The past year has seen a paradigm shift in the world’s attitude to remote working. A recent study from Gallup found that the majority (59%) of people would like to work remotely as much as possible, even with restrictions lifted.
But despite this, we’re not ready to give up the benefits of the office either. When OKTA surveyed UK workers, they found that more than half (57%) miss face-to-face conversations with colleagues, while 49% miss the relationships they have formed with others in office.
For this reason, any business that wants to attract and retain the right talent should embrace a hybrid working model - a location flexible agreement with workers split between home and office working - so everyone’s needs and preferences are catered for.
We caught up with Ben Chatfield, CEO and Co-founder of end-to-end hiring platform Tempo, to get his thoughts on the benefits of hybrid working and his top tips for hiring for a hybrid workforce.
“Hybrid working opens up some exciting opportunities to access a global talent pool. This can be particularly useful if you’re looking for very niche, hard to find skill sets.”
As well as increasing your access to talent, embracing a hybrid model will increase how attractive you are to talent. In a recent EY survey, more than half (54%) of respondents said they would consider quitting their jobs if they did not have some form of flexibility over where and when they worked. So you may deter a number of good candidates from applying to your organisation if you don’t offer hybrid working opportunities.
That is because employees say that the ability to work remotely would make them feel happier (83%), more trusted in their role (82%), better able to achieve a work-life balance (81%), and less stressed (80%), according to Owl Labs.
Technology can improve the recruitment process for both candidates and employers. As well as minimising cost per hire, innovative technology can drastically increase the efficiency of the hiring process.
The Tempo platform, for instance, automatically matches you to candidates that are an ideal fit for your company, based on experience, skills, preferences and more. This means hiring through Tempo is typically 2.5x more efficient than through conventional recruitment methods.
“You get all the information you want from the get-go and can run a smooth, candidate-friendly hiring process from start to finish, including screening, video interviews, and offers”.
“There are lots of challenges when hiring a workforce that is hybrid, with communication and transparency becoming even more important”.
When you cut face-to-face interactions out of the recruitment process, it is especially important that you build consistent communication flows with candidates. When we meet virtually instead of in person, we have to work harder to read non-verbal cues - body language, emotion etc. So it is especially important that you communicate consistently with your candidates to ensure you are building strong relationships and enhancing the candidate experience for them.
“It’s really important to create structure for your new hire’s first couple of weeks, being very thorough and intentional with the information you share with them. You can’t completely rely on learning by osmosis that usually happens from being in the office and overhearing conversations.”
Encourage entry-level hires to come into the office as much as possible, rather than working remotely. They will benefit from learning from those around them. Where they cannot come into the office, be sure to provide all the documentation they could need. Make sure discussions they are not privy to, but may benefit from hearing, are well documented and shared.
It is also important, from a cultural perspective, to create social structure.
“There also aren’t as many regular opportunities to nip out and grab a coffee or lunch with people to get to know them better, so space has to be created to do this virtually.”
Tools like Donut are great for ensuring your teams are still building personal relationships when some, or all, are working virtually.
“Leaning heavily on your company values, if you’ve defined them, can really help with this and can be a good barometer of how well someone will “fit” in the organisation - regardless of whether you’re working remotely or in the office”.
Candidates and employers alike believe a strong cultural fit leads to greater job satisfaction (90%), better job performance (84%), employees feeling more committed to their company and less likely to leave (81%), as well as more respect for the organisation (78%) (Robert Walters survey).
However, Ben believes that we should look for more than just cultural “fit”.
“It’s better to think about it in terms of cultural add rather than cultural fit. What is this person going to bring that you don’t already have, or that will complement others around them, rather than how closely they match people already in the team?”
So, let your company values guide your recruitment strategy. See every prospective candidate as a chance to enhance your company culture and productivity, rather than just someone to gel well with the team.
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