Talent will continue to prioritise those organisations that promote flexibility and remote working | Future of Work Club

Welcome to the Future of Work Club! ????

Your go-to resource for inspiration, knowledge, and growth in the world of remote work. Get ready to reshape your perspective on remote working! ????

Join Alexandra Stone , Head of TA at Adaptavist , as he shares his profound expertise on innovating talent acquisition in a remote world. Dive into our latest newsletter for an exclusive interview where Alex discusses the challenges and triumphs of recruiting globally, the strategies for attracting diverse talent, and the future of remote work. Don’t miss out on learning how leadership and flexibility are shaping a thriving company culture at Adaptavist!

??? Meet Alex Stone???

I'm Head of TA at The Adaptavist Group; we deliver innovative software, tailored solutions, and quality services across some of the world’s most trusted technology ecosystems, including Atlassian, AWS, Slack, monday.com , Aha!, GitLab, and many more. Before joining TAG, I led talent functions at information services and market research firms: I've always been in the B2B space, in internal talent, only spending 12 months on the agency side early on in my career - I'm just not a salesperson! My passion is for realising the potential of internal talent teams, enabling them to get ahead of the curve and operate as trusted partners that deliver actual talent solutions, not just hiring a bum for a seat.

Could you share a success story or a particularly challenging experience you've had in recruiting for remote roles, and what lessons were learned?

During my career, particularly since Covid, I've led teams delivering into a variety of remote locations - firms looking to set up in what they see as lower cost locations and offshore workload or teams, through to hiring for roles based remotely. What's been really clear to me when offshoring, is the need for in-depth understanding of potential locations, not just the cost and talent availability, but the nuances of 'how' local talent operates: what organisations have offshored before and what roles, what are the cultural norms, how do people like to work.

Given your expertise in global attraction and selection methodologies, how does Adaptivist tailor its strategies to attract diverse talent in various regions?

I don't believe in a one size fits all approach: I empower my team to come up with unique talent attraction strategies based upon the role, the location, through to the diversity of the existing team. Over the past 12 months we've seen positive feedback from our stakeholders on the improved diversity of shortlists since implementing more proactive approaches to attracting talent. At the Group level, we look at things such as inclusive language in our ads and our outreach messages, partnering with platforms and groups that represent diverse talent, and encouraging diverse interview panels. We have a number of initiatives in development this year too, including upskilling our line managers, but this is an area for constant evolution in my opinion.

Adaptivist has been recognized for its flexible working arrangements and diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture. What role leadership team plays in it and what recommendations could you give to improve company culture?

Our flexibility definitely trickles down from the top at The Adaptavist Group, and is embedded in our values; particularly trust: we trust people from day one. We've set up an environment that enables people to work from where suits them - we have a number of fantastic office spaces, but don't mandate when people have to attend - all preferences are catered for.?

How do you envision the future of remote work?

This feels like a tough question to answer, particularly given the huge emphasis right now on the 'Return To Office'. The future will definitely be divided, with more traditional firms and vocations being on-site, versus those firms that have embraced remote work continuing with that trend, but perhaps in smaller numbers over time. I believe that for the most part, talent will continue to prioritise those organisations that promote flexibility and remote working, and we'll see clear differences in the ability of organisations to attract talent: talent will gravitate towards those organisations that meet their needs, and away from those that don't.