The past 2 years after the pandemic have brought a considerable amount of change to what we consider a traditional, productive work environment. Since 2020, the notion that work productivity solely relied on being physically present in the office has since been challenged by those who found comfort in remote work. Employees have adjusted to working remotely so much, in fact, that the discussion of whether employees should ever return to working in person or remain remote has become a top issue for CEOs.
Old Habits Die Hard
A top news story over the past couple of weeks involved CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk. Having rejected this very idea of remote productivity, Musk informed his employees that they are to spend at least 40 hours of their week working in person or “they can resign.”
In response to this growing issue, CEOs have resorted to offering remote schedules as incentive to retain and recruit employees during the Great Resignation. Companies such as Nationwide, Shopify, and Coinbase have implemented this “Remote First” policy, where most job opportunities at the company prioritize remote work over having to come into the office.
The Birth of the Hybrid Model
As this debate continued, a new approach was created to satisfy both sides of the discussion: the hybrid work model. As many are familiar, the hybrid work model allows employees to work part of the week in person, and the remainder remotely. This serves as a middle ground for those who prefer to work from home while also adhering to those who consider peak work performance to be in-house.
While it has been sufficiently challenging to retain current employees during a time when 4.5 million employees quit their jobs in 2021, staying competitive as an employer has become equally difficult. As a means to combat this growing concern, CRG has also offered the implementation of the hybrid model. Since the incorporation of this model, the overall response has been overwhelmingly positive among the candidates who were placed.
Letting the Candidate Be Heard
Following Elon Musk’s comments to his employees, CRG created a poll to ask business professionals on LinkedIn which work model they preferred. From over a thousand responses, 60% preferred the hybrid work model over working remotely, which made up of 32% of responses. The remainder of responses made up of only 8% having preferred to work in person.
One of our core values at CRG is empathy, and that empathy is a result of listening to what candidates have to say. In order to retain top talent, employers must first recognize the needs of their employees and act on them. The effects of a post-pandemic world may be challenging but they can also offer solutions to the very problems they created.
It is clear now that this growing concern over employee retention is a result of a lack of attention to employees in the workplace. This issue is one that created a new interpretation of what it means to be competitive as an employer, and the hybrid work model could become one of the top solutions to retaining employees.
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