Building a Sustainable Hybrid Workforce as the Forever New Normal
Written by HRCap, Inc.
October 27, 2021
COVID-19 has pushed and advanced businesses into considering new normal work environments.
According to Pew Research, before the onset of the pandemic, only 20% of workers said they have ever teleworked. Now nearly 71% of those in the workforce are working from home. Furthermore, 54% of workers are asking for continued teleworking as an option.
From teleworking, both employers and employees have benefited from safety, cost, and flexibility. Businesses have been able to adhere to COVID-19 protocols and provide their employees with safer working conditions. Companies have been able to minimize costs with savings up to $11K per employee annually, according to Global Workplace Analytics. Employees have been able to accrue cost savings of up to $4K with less money spent on commuting and other necessities throughout the work day. Finally, teleworking has granted both businesses and employees a more flexible work experience and in return, higher employee satisfaction and lower employee turnover rate, for many organizations.
However, we recently learned that remote work has also been met with drawbacks since crucial aspects of in-office work cannot be fully replicated by remote work. Key concerns that have arisen from remote work are lack of productivity, barriers to innovation, and reduced engagement.
HRCap advises business leaders and HR executives on tackling such issues by addressing business needs and adopting workplace models that are both conducive to optimal business performance and responsive to employee satisfaction. These past weeks, we have talked extensively about the benefits and drawbacks of each work modality, and the rationale behind workplace decisions that businesses have made in carrying out their ongoing operations for the new business normal.
Read Related: Proceeding with the “New Normal” of Work Modalities
We still believe hybrid work is the most sustainable work modality. As of October 2021, companies including American Express, Adobe, UBS, and Uber have determined the importance and efficacy of instituting a hybrid work model and have implemented this new modality into their ongoing operations, according to Build Remote. These companies strongly recognize that the hybrid model takes into consideration the variety of factors that allow employees to unlock their fullest potentials and create lasting impact for the companies they work for. This thereby enables them to feel Net Better Off, a new framework developed by Accenture highlighting how employees and businesses could thrive by addressing the basic human needs. The 6 dimensions include: Financial, Emotional & Mental, Relational, Physical, Purposeful, and Employable.
In adapting to a new hybrid work environment however, HR Executives and Hiring Teams must be trained to implement strategic ways to identify, screen, and hire the right candidates from the get-go. Here at HRCap, we have adjusted and improved our recruiting process to extensively screen for the candidates’ abilities to cater to the variety of work modalities across our client groups. Because hybrid work encompasses both in-office and in-person work, creating and evaluating an employee’s persona will be crucial for future of workplace arrangement design, as suggested by Harvard Business Review.
We carefully assess career vision, work ethics, and technical ability to work productively remotely as well as their genuine willingness to work onsite.
We thoroughly screen for critical soft skills (such as self-directed, proactive, task-oriented, tech-savvy, communicative) that allow employees to be effective in a remote or hybrid environment.
We strictly institute video-over-phone interviews policies, pre-employment testing, and 360 degree professional reference checks to validate our selective decision-making for each candidate.
Recruiting the right talent is the most essential step in building a sustainable workplace culture, and leaders must make critical improvements in their hiring process to attract, hire, and retain the right talent, especially as the Great Resignation continues on through the year, as reported by Bankrate.
Our Digital Ops & Market Research Team is currently working on publishing a HRCap Whitepaper that provides insights and effective strategies on attracting and screening candidates who can succeed in hybrid workplace environments. The whitepaper will be available for download in November 2021.
Source: HRCap, Pew Research, Global Workforce Analytics, Build Remote, Accenture, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Bankrate
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