Ask a Recruiter: What Types of Office Policies Are Best for Recruitment and Retention

Dear ACCUR,

I own a medium-sized company and we went of course went remote during COVID with most of our staff. This year, I began to implement some return to work policies, but we’re experiencing some pushback from our managers, especially those who are planning to make hires this year. Just as a sanity check, I wanted to see what your thoughts are on remote policies, especially as they influence hiring and recruitment.

Thank you for your input!

CEO

Dear CEO,

Thanks for this question–it’s actually one of the questions we get asked the most. And it’s an important one in the present moment.

COVID has reshaped the professional landscape. And while employees were pushing for flexibility before the pandemic, the rapid adoption of work-from-home policies means that for many employees, flexibility is a must.

There is plenty of good research on what return-to-work policies work and which ones don’t. In our experience, offering employees flexibility in the type of arrangement you implement is paramount.

Key things to ask your when crafting a return-to-work policy

If you are considering changing your policy, here are some questions to ask yourself:

Am I crafting policy that will work for workers in different life stages and parts of their careers?
Do I have “buy-in” from my employees about these changes?
Are there valuable gains to be made by offering flexible policies regarding work-from-home?

Onsite, Hybrid or Fully Remote?

Every employer has a slightly different take on the type of office policy that will work best for them:

Fully remote: we’ve found in our past research that many talent employees want this option. It cuts down on their commuting cost and offers more flexibility in where they can live and do their jobs. On the other hand, this option can be challenging for parents.
Onsite: The choice of several New York financial institutions, this option is also the most controversial.
Hybrid: This option has people in the office several days a week. While this can be quite complicated to execute, we are finding it is most popular with our clients at this point.

How Remote Work Policies Affect Recruiting

First of all, we are finding that remote work or flexible policies are among the top concerns of job candidates in a labor market that we still consider quite tight for the most talented executives. In terms of the candidates we speak to, we find it be frequently ranked immediately behind compensation in the factors that talent considers in taking a job.

Geography matters too. Many employees now want the option of moving to different parts of the country and working remotely. Opening your organization up to remote workers can enhance your appeal to top candidates in other areas.

The Bottom Line on Return-to-Work

In our experience, the most competitive employers are now attempting to support a hybrid approach, which allows their employees the flexibility to work from home at least a few days a week.