Hybrid Working and Attracting Talent - Laura Walters

In this article, Laura Walters our Recruitment Board Director has a look at how hybrid working is shaping businesses and how this is impacting talent attraction. 

For many businesses hybrid working has become a way of working and this can be defined as:

'’The hybrid working model is a work style that enables employees to blend working from different locations: home, on the go, or the office.’’

Many businesses have transitioned from the daily office life of face to face breakfast meetings to staff logging on to conferencing equipment, sharing screens and fighting with the mute button, and for many of us so far it has worked. Coming out of the pandemic many of our clients were curious and cautious about accepting a hybrid model of working. Some welcoming it, some completely opposed and some approaching with caution.

With this in mind I have been asking my clients and peers about how their businesses have been adjusting to hybrid working, how it has affected their recruitment of talent and this is what they said.

Michelle Vint, Co-Founder at Regital

Michelle Vint, Co-Founder, Regital tells us about how hybrid working has made them work harder for culture and allowed them to cast their net further for talent.

“Regital have remained fully flexible since COVID and it’s working really well. I can’t see us trying to reverse engineer this ever, it wouldn’t be popular and I don’t think is necessary. We do have to work harder to retain our culture and ensure communication is effective across the full team, but nothing a little imagination and trial and error can’t solve.

I’m not sure what impact it has had on our recruitment to be honest as it’s just been seen as a given by candidates I think. We have people working for us now that don’t live locally which I guess is a change from pre-COVID, so the recruitment net is certainly cast wider than previously.”

Simon Lloyd, CMO at Ice Travel Group

Simon Lloyd, CMO at Ice Travel Group talks about how flexibility has allowed his business to attract talent but also increased the competition for talent.

"Having recently completed a merger of two business based across three different UK locations, the flexibility we now have in being able to search a wider talent pool with a mix of home and office working is certainly allowing us to attract talent that we may not have been able to in the past. On the reverse side of this, the competition for talent has increased as the candidate’s location has become less of a defining criteria."

Tim Hutchinson, Head of Digital Experience and Product at Slater and Gordon

Tim Hutchinson of Slater and Gordon makes a valid point that hybrid is not just location but also the hours some staff work.

“Understanding the difference between flexible and hybrid working models is key. If you offer a hybrid model, you’re still dictating the terms of how you want someone to work. A flexible model should be just that, it allows individuals to decide when they work and where they work. The downside to this is it can easily disrupt how teams work together, but can often lead to greater productivity, commitment, and advocacy. 

Flexible start/stop times, core hours and work anywhere – seems to be the sweet spot for candidates in my opinion. What shall we call that, Hybrexible or Flexyrid?”

Dan Roylance, Senior Global CRM lead at Distrelec

Dan Roylance, Senior Global CRM Lead at Distrelec Group discusses what hybrid working has looked like in his workplace.

“Recruitment has been pivotal for us at Distrelec this year as we are fortunate to be experiencing growth that is surpassing expectation. Finding the right people has also been one of our biggest challenges. We have adapted to an ever-changing market going from mandatory 5 day working weeks in our Manchester office to 2, plus increased flexibility with our core working hours. I think businesses, particularly like ours who operate overseas, need to provide flexibility to attract and keep people, especially considering glocalization and advances in technology.”

 Damon Westbury, Managing Director at Zinc Media

Damon Westbury Managing Director at Zinc Media gives us insight into what he sees happening in their business around hybrid working.

“Like so many businesses, we’ve had to significantly rethink our approach to traditional 9-5 office working in favour of hybrid working and fully remote working; to operate a Covid safe environment, respond to employee and candidate expectations, stay ahead of traditional localised talent competition, and compete with a new cross sector competition spread across a wider national base that has arisen from the growing trend of fully remote and hybrid working.

Add to this, other challenging trends including staff shortages, wage inflation across a wide range of sectors, from hospitality to logistics, which has led to further competition from sectors outside of our traditional talent base, companies must react with new strategies to attract the talent resource required. To enable Zinc Media to compete more efficiently we have embarked on several wide-ranging initiatives; from tech investment to drive collaboration (that goes far beyond utilising Microsoft Teams and SharePoint), to cloud based production, new data, automation and customer relationship management systems and importantly softer benefits that include travel and wider well-being benefits.

While remote working can work well, we have seen stronger longer-term results of having our people and teams together in person regularly and consistently. To further encourage this; we have also embarked on office improvement programs, onboarding new remote staff in our offices so they get to know our people and culture, while ensuring all remote staff have a regular, albeit short, monthly, or bimonthly presence in our offices.”

Rich Higham, Digital Marketing Manager at CuddleCo

Rich Higham, Digital Marketing Manager at CuddleCo discusses how hybrid working is retaining talent and helping with overall staff morale.

“Everyone has to be flexible currently. The team at CuddleCo work on a flexible basis, but are mainly based in the office as we can collaborate, make decisions and chat through ideas quicker and with less barriers. 50% of the team are WFH today as they have appointments so by being flexible helps us attract and retain talent, motivate and engage people. It’s reflected in our retention and engagement rates. 

Lets be honest – treat people as adults, not commodities. A thank you doesn’t have to cost the earth, a nice breakfast on Black Friday when the team have been working tirelessly is a nice to have, but not a replacement for having flexibility and balance and paid fairly. It’s our approach to driving long term success in retaining talent and the expertise it brings. “

Anna Morley, Head of Marketing at N Brown

Anna Morley, Head of Marketing at N Brown talk about the expectation of hybrid working and how it impacts the work life balance.

“Flexibility around office/remote working is no longer seen as a benefit, it’s an expectation when job seekers apply for the role. The same view is shared by employees, who aren’t willing to give up the positive work/life balance they’ve been able to develop. To attract and retain talent, companies need to trust employees and measure their performance on output, regardless of where or what hours they work. I would much rather see companies listing ‘trusting culture’ on the list of benefits in their job ads than 25 days’ holiday.”

Whatever your feelings, it looks like hybrid working isn’t here for the short term and whilst workplaces continue to change and adapt it is important that they consider if and where it fits into their workplace model.

We would love to hear your thoughts!

Author:

Laura Walters, Board Recruitment Director at The Candidate

Laura Walters specialises in Executive Level Recruitment, if you would like a chat about your career or recruitment for your business get in touch with her or any of our team by emailing [email protected] or call 0161 833 1044.