Employers failing to offer hybrid work risk losing out in recruitment
- Reference: 1677677665
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/03/01/gartner_hybrid_work/
- Source link:
The shift is more pronounced in the US, with 51 percent of knowledge workers – those outside retail, manual and semi-skilled work and direct physical services and care – getting hybrid working arrangements while 20 percent will be fully remote.
The topic of remote working has become divisive in the last couple of years as companies struggled to find the right balance. Although pandemic-related lockdowns necessitated working from home, some businesses were happy to see the trend continue, while others favor back-to-the-office mandates.
[1]
In tech, for example, CRM giant Salesforce [2]set out flexible working options , but fellow SaaS vendor Workday, which specializes in HR and finance applications, took a different view. CEO Aneel Bhusri said he was a [3]"big believer that we're going to be back in the office."
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Office working – and sleeping – mandates have also been a feature of electric car and rocket merchant [6]Elon Musk's controversial takeover of the social media platform Twitter.
However companies failing to accommodate workers' preferences for hybrid working risk losing out to competitors in terms of recruitment and retention, Gartner senior director and analyst Ranjit Atwal told The Register .
[7]Google staff asked to share desk space in latest cost purge
[8]Amazon mandates return to office for 300,000 corporate staff
[9]Meet the new Citrix, same as the old Citrix – but hybrid
[10]Salesforce's new hires are less productive, says CEO Benioff
"The problem is, we've got these headlines from US banks and others that are saying, 'We want everybody to come back to the office: let's get back to where we were.' That's really not feasible, from an employee perspective," he said.
Positions employers insist must be fulfilled five days a week in the office will go down the applicant's preferred list of job opportunities compared with similar positions that offer flexibility, he said.
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Dell said last autumn that given the perennial skills shortage in the tech industry, vendors wanting to attract the best talent need to be mindful of [12]proximity bias .
Employers should also reconsider how they measure their workforce output and get used to the idea that the "visibility" of workers is not the same as outcomes.
"What's changed here is what companies want from employees. Do they want visibility? At the same time, how do they measure productivity? We're encouraging organizations to evaluate how they measure productivity. It is not just measuring the things people are doing, but the effectiveness of outcomes for the organization," Atwal said.
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It is something organizations will need to get used to quickly. Gartner found that in the US, the number of fully remote and hybrid knowledge workers will account for 71 percent of the workforce in 2023 while in the UK, 67 percent of knowledge workers are set to enjoy fully remote and hybrid working arrangements.
Those anticipating the office working style of the Before Times look like they will have to wait. ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y-@EtSH5YCxtCaUkXS7n8wAAAA0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/10/salesforce_wfh/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/18/workday_ceo_says_oracle_way/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y-@EtSH5YCxtCaUkXS7n8wAAAA0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
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[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/07/musk_twitter_offices/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/23/google_staff_asked_to_share/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/20/amazon_mandates_return_to_office/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/16/citrix_future_directions/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/19/salesforce_new_hires_less_productive_claims_benioff/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y-@EtSH5YCxtCaUkXS7n8wAAAA0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/21/proximity_bias_workforce_productivity/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y-@EtSH5YCxtCaUkXS7n8wAAAA0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Remote flexiblity is not a perk of any job
above bare minimum pension contributions
That if you are believer in pensions and that you get anything by the time you retire.
Employer ideally should be paying you the pension allowance directly so you could invest as you see fit, rather than pumping investment funds of the rich.
Re: Remote flexiblity is not a perk of any job
The only two things I found really attractive from immigrating from the UK to the USA financially was that *I* own my mention fund and 30-year fixed mortgages are normal.
The UK military and the members of Parliament pension are the only two final salary schemes I would ever trust.
Re: Remote flexiblity is not a perk of any job
Employers that don't allow for it, in jobs that blatantly can be done remotely don't deserve your time.
Find somewhere that values your efforts and flexibility. Go there and do a good job for them, on your terms. I can assure you there are orgs out there *desperate* to backfill skilled analytical roles that the average el Reg hack would be more than well placed to take; and pay fair levels on good terms.
I'm not gonna advertise here, obviously, but the principle stands.
Landlords
Is this another landlords sponsored piece?
Imagine having invested hundreds of millions in a building only to have people prefer to work in their shoeboxes anyway.
They really really want to protect their investments.
If you can, never go back to office. Better demand that your employer pays you enough so that you can buy a bigger house where you can have dedicated space for work.
Re: Landlords
They really really want to protect their investments.
Well yeah, if you're in the business of property you'd probably want some return on it. They only got into that business due to massive demand after all.
Re: Landlords
This should be banned.
It offers little benefit, but heavily affects environment negatively. Imagine thousands of people travelling needlessly to such building every day. How much emissions does it generate?
Then you have all these pointless chain restaurants trying to have a slice of your wage with their overpriced food. Sure you can prepare meals at home, but when if you spend so much time already commuting?
It's like this system has been designed to exploit workers at every turn.
back in the 80s
When I was studying Computer Science at Uni, remote working was 5 years away.
Complete Nonsense
Oh please. Why does anyone still think Gartner is relevant? I'd bet a shiny coin that someone paid for for that propaganda piece. These dinosaur CxOs want to get some value from their expensive leases.
In my field (DevOps engineer / Cloud Architects), as far as I can tell we're about 75% remote, and most people forced to go "hybrid" are looking elsewhere.
Remote flexiblity is not a perk of any job
A perk of a job is something like
- above bare minimum pension contributions
- same for holiday allowance
- ability to take unpaid career breaks for extended periods then return to the same position. To travel, spend time with family, or whatever you like.
Where you do that job has no relationship to the types of things above. They are simply not correlated at all.
Yes, there are some jobs which cannot be done remotely. But there are more that can, at least to some extent.
It really is this simple. Any employer, in 2023, that is only offering the ability to work from an office quite rightly needs to go under. To the point where it's unthinkable for anybody to pretend forcing people to come into an office is in any way appropriate or something employees should/will tolerate. But moreover, giving human beings flexibility and caring about them, is not a fucking "perk" of any job.
"visibility of workers is not the same as outcomes" . This. Absolutely this.