Hybrid is here Working from home or working from the office – which one’s best? Recruitment specialist ER Recruitment explains why both have their pros and cons
‘N
ormality’ is slowly but surely beginning to sneak back into our lives, with physical meetings taking place once more, events creeping back into the calendar, and team socials back in play. However, there is one notable change that many businesses did not have in place prior to Covid-19 – hybrid working. When speaking with our clients, a significant amount have now adopted the parthome, part-office working approach with ourselves also enjoying the benefit of both. It has become the norm for employees who can work from home to be given the flexibility to do so, with many stating it improves work-life balance without impacting productivity. From a recruitment perspective, hybrid working seems to tick numerous boxes. Many candidates are attracted to the ability of having the option to work from home some days. This flexible working is now a selling point when recruiting for new talent. For employers, it also means that top talent who may have
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FLEXIBLE WORKING IS NOW A SELLING POINT WHEN RECRUITING FOR NEW TALENT
previously not been in their candidate pool due to location are now accessible as they are willing to commute further as it’s not an everyday commitment. Naturally, with a new way of working comes new rules and guidelines that need to be put into place – for some businesses this will be more formal than others, but in general, it’s important that the employer and employee are on the same page in terms of what hybrid working looks like for individuals. The standard concept seems to be the agreement of set days in the office and set days working from home to ensure consistency and communication remain, but there are a variety of ways hybrid working operates. The best way to identify suitability is to assess what worked well in 2020 and where the challenges lay. The most common appeal of hybrid working seems to be the ability to ‘have your cake and eat it’. Employees like being present with their colleagues and sharing ideas, but many state they also enjoy the ability to utilise the time they would spend commuting doing something
else productive such as exercise or spending extra time with family. Some business leaders still hold the opinion that staff are less productive at home and are better in the office full-time, and for some individuals this may be the case. However, overall, it tends to be the opposite, with many employers telling us the biggest issue is staff actually shutting off. A work computer is shut down at the end of the day, but with workstations being set up at home, there is the issue of some team members failing to disconnect from work commitments, which could lead to potential burnout. Whether it’s loved or loathed, hybrid working looks like it is here to stay for the foreseeable. So it’s unsurprising that more and more businesses are adapting to this new way of working and, as a positive for both employers and employees, it’s likely to be the favoured way of working for most going forward. Feel free to contact us if you would like to understand more about what other businesses are doing.
