Flexibility helps company to increase their headcount and improves perception of their Leadership
Nicolas BEHBAHANI
Global People Analytics & HR Data Leader - People & Culture | Strategical People Analytics Design
??More office, less headcount growth.
There is a strong correlation between number of days required in office and headcount growth over the last 12 months. The average number of days required in the office for companies, is now 2,53 days per week but some company push to 4 days per week with Return-to-office mandates. Flexible companies - whether fully flexible or structured hybrid - outpace full time in office companies in hiring across all company size. These companies are adding headcount at more than 2 times the pace of full time in office companies, according to a new interesting research published by Flex Index Scoop called "The Flex Report - Job Growth Edition" using data from a combination of Flex Index data (representing 4,500 employees and more than 30,000 office locations) with? People Data Labs .
?Correlation between Headcount growth and minimum days required in office
Researchers noticed that there is strong correlation between number of days required in office and company headcount % increase:
?? Companies that require zero days in office, added 5,6% to their headcount. This number drops to 3.8% for four days per week in office and 2,6% for full time in office.
While the difference in headcount growth is relatively small between one day required and three days required (4,8% vs 4.4%), there is clear downward inflection for at four days (3,8%) with 1% less.
? Difference of headcount growth most pronounced for big companies
Researchers noticed that companies with 500-5k employees have tripled the headcount growth rate of their full time in office peers. Over the last 12 months, flexible companies with 500-5k employees have grown more than 2 times compared to full time in office companies.
?? They also noticed that the difference in headcount growth between fully flexible and structured hybrid companies is less significant.
?? Researchers found that full time in office companies underperform their flexible peers on headcount growth in every size category and time period.
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?Flexibility helps companies to engage and retain Talent and improves Perceptions of Senior Leadership
Another interesting research published recently by DDI | Development Dimensions International found similar findings. DDI researchers found that companies with CEOs that support flexible work are 3.3X more likely to feel prepared to engage and retain talent than those that do not support flexible work. They are also 2.6X more likely to feel prepared to hire the right people.
When flexible work is common and supported, leaders are nearly 5X more likely to say that they trust their senior leaders.??
DDI Researchers conclude that flexible work can be an effective strategy to avoid losing talent as well as to fortify perceptions of leadership across the workforce.
??Finally, researchers warned that executives should be very careful to consider the potential impact on attracting talent if they require four days per week or more in the office. Based on these findings, it's clear that offer location flexibility are growing headcount faster than companies that require full time in office.
Researchers emphasized that of course headcount growth is not a perfect proxy for economic growth, but it's likely that the companies that are adding headcount are also the ones that are growing sales.
Researchers expect to see the percentage of companies requiring full time in office continue to drop in favor of hybrid models that better reflect the needs of the workforce.
Thank you ?? Scoop Flex Index ?researchers team for these insightful findings: Rob Sadow Jonathan Sadow Michael Samuels Nick Bloom Kate Walsh Sam Peniak
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Founder & CEO @ Lever Talent | Host of The Lever Show | Helping leaders develop talent strategies that leverage a tech-empowered future.
1 年It think it makes sense that more flexible or remote companies would grow headcount faster than those with fixed offices or little flexibility because they are newer and in earlier business stages on average. That said, I just spoke to a food production company yesterday that is expanding like crazy. They are 100% on-premise. In this case, they have made that decision because the majority of workers are in production and retail locations, and they produce a tangible product. It's imperative to their culture and mission that employees build relationships, see each other, and see the finished, tangible work product. My point here is that whether or not you offer flexibility is a strategic decision unique to the company. That said, if the decision is to remain less flexible, then I think it should be noted in glowing lights that recruiting and retaining talent for some roles will be increasingly difficult. HR deserves this air cover IMO.
Lead consultant in HR Strategy & Value Management. Enhancing Value through Human Performance. Delivery of Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Training. Lecturer and International Speaker on HRM and Value Management.
1 年Remote/hybrid working is not new - which is why I am surprised that there is such a paradox between flexible working and management of remote/hybrid working and, especially, with regard to career development. According to Forbes, 44% of today's early career professionals have not had the benefit of the traditional company orientation sessions, team building events and professional conference networking that are critical for them to 'learn the ropes' and build their professional networks. My own research found that 43% of Gen Z and Millennials highlighted that they were not receiving the development that they felt necessary for career progression. This is not surprising given that research by HR Review found that 48% of Millennials report that communicating with colleagues is difficult. This shows poor induction processes and a decline in communication/collaboration across the organisation in which they work. It also shows a lack of employee engagement as well as poor management of the Network Structure (individual silos) that is introduced by such flexible working. Remote/hybrid working does work, but it requires a different thought-process from both the employee and the employer. Continued below.
CEO & Co-Founder @ Flex Index | LinkedIn Top Voice | Forbes Future of Work 50
1 年Nicolas thanks for the shout out! Link to our Flex Index job growth report: https://bit.ly/3NSrjtV
Driving Performance, Solving Challenges, and Elevating Employee Experiences
1 年Nicolas BEHBAHANI Globalization and digital disruption have lowered the barriers to entry for many businesses moving the competition landscape to customer services as a battleground. There is a growing emphasis on customer experience, personalization, and service across many sectors. Research suggests that people still prefer interacting with human customer service agents over automated machines or chatbots.
Speaker, Author, Professor, Thought Partner on Human Capability (talent, leadership, organization, HR)
1 年Nicolas BEHBAHANI The discussion about whether employees work in the office or remotely continues, but I believe will likely slow as organizations discover what works for their unique work (jobs) and employee requirements. Some work requires full time in office; other is much more flexible; the same applies for employees who may have preferences. Organizations will likely discover the right mix of full vs. remote work depending on the unique situation. as George Kemish LLM MCMI MIC MIoL (and others) consistently point out, managing employees in person vs. remotely is different. In person managers observe employees and they can manage by rules; remote work requires management by shared values. It is useful to see research on these general trends and these are two interesting studies, but each company may discover what works best for their specific situation.