WHY COMPANIES MUST GET SERIOUS ABOUT HYBRID HIRING

It is difficult to foresee exactly what the next 12 months have in store for us. If the last two years have taught us anything, expect the unexpected.

What we can be sure of is that we need to be agile enough to adapt to the ever-changing landscape in the world of work. The pandemic shifted work patterns overnight. Businesses had to change to ensure their workforce could operate effectively from home and a hybrid way of working has been the norm for many people over the best part of the last two years.

As well as hybrid working, hybrid hiring became a more considered option. Without the need for a 24-hour office, why would companies restrict their hiring to just the city, or even country, where they are based?

The Hays report,?“Pandemic Implications on the World of Work”,?found: “The ability to work remotely increases flexibility for both employees and employers; expanding where employees can work from, and employers can hire from, in the future. It also raises the possibility of hiring workers to work remotely from abroad (termed ‘telemigration’). This increases the talent pool of workers available to organisations and may enable them to hire lower-cost labour.”

Despite this, however, it seems as though many businesses are falling back into their old habits. As highlighted in the?Remote Leadership Report?by Terminal: “1 in 5 leaders don’t have a strategy for finding talent in a remote work environment. In fact, nearly half plan to mostly look in the region surrounding their offices.”

This means that companies are missing out on the benefits of hybrid hiring. But what are those advantages?

THE BENEFITS OF HYBRID HIRING

Retaining current and attracting new staff –?The last two years have made many of us reassess what we want from life. Greater flexibility in our work lives is more important than ever. Having an employer that understands that is crucial.

Last year?I wrote about the Great Resignation, the phenomenon that 41% of people were seriously considering leaving their current job in the next 12 months.

In the?2022 Hays UK Salary Guide, we also found that 65% of those surveyed would be tempted to move to another organisation if they had more flexibility. Failure to show tangible proof that you have a hybrid plan can leave you struggling to retain your current talent.

Broader talent pools –?Another benefit of hybrid hiring is an expanded talent pool from which to hire. We enter a new year with acute skills shortages across many professions. There are simply not enough people with the right skills to fill the jobs of today and tomorrow. I spoke about some of the methods we as business leaders can undertake to?fill this skills gap here.

Increased diversity –?Another potential benefit of hybrid hiring is increased diversity in your workforce. When I wrote about?how we could all overcome the skills shortage, I noted that there was “an opportunity for businesses to create a more diverse, equal and inclusive workforce.” I believe the same is true of hybrid hiring.

The Hays report found that women were more adversely affected by the pandemic than men: “This is likely due to a number of factors, including female employment being more concentrated in worse-hit sectors, and women being more likely to take a greater role in childcare and caring for family members, meaning they were more likely to exit the labour market during the crisis.”