Does this position allow working from home?

Any hiring manager today will tell you the big question to prepare for from candidates is “does this position allow for home working?”.

Pre-COVID this type of question was a rarity, reserved for specialist roles, genuine remote workers, small or niche businesses but today, be prepared for someone living just around the block from the office to want the flexibility of working from home.

COVID-19, which is still on-going, and combined with a ravenous flu season, presents challenges to employers and staff alike. We expect it will prove to be a defining moment in work-place relationships, not only between an employer and their staff, but also between Government, the business sector and Unions, as greater flexibility and financial support may be required to deal with future pandemics.

The last major global outbreak of disease before the COVID-19 pandemic was the influenza pandemic (H1N1) of 2009 which may have killed as many as 575,000 people. The rate at which modern pandemics spread globally is unprecedented, which can be attributed to modern working practices, congestion, and the high rates of international passenger travel that characterises the modern era.  Employees are aware of these trends via social media and all too aware of what they liked about “home working”, pandemic or no pandemic.

You need to be prepared for the question – does your company offer the flexibility of working from home?

And if the answer is an emphatic “No”, what if your competitors do? What then? And not only does this have implications for hiring, it also raises a question over staff retention.

The “war for talent”

The current hiring environment presents an opportunity to review how you compete for talent. The “war for talent” has been over-hyped over the last decade but not only is net overseas migration falling ( meaning reduction in the number of available workers from overseas ), the trend domestically according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics is for the largest net inflow to Australia’s regions since 2001, when records were first kept.

If you are an inner-city business, you are facing a reduction in the available workforce from immigration and a net outflow from the Cities into regional areas – so you need to figure out how you compete!

Take a closer look internally

Salary and benefits are obvious factors, but with rising inflation many organisations will be challenged to manage costs while competing for talent. And most managers will tell you, a pay-rise is normally good for about 12 to 18 months, at which point the staff member considers the new salary “normal” and levels of dissatisfaction can reappear.

Before reaching for the cheque book (if you even can), take a step back. COVID-19 was a massive disruption but examine what worked for your business during periods of remote working, and what didn’t?

What are the lessons you can learn? It’s important to get input from a wide group of people as possible because the answers won’t be easy to determine.  You may want to get some external facilitation on this to both collect and analyse the data; not least because staff members may be reluctant to share true feelings if they feel it puts them in conflict with management, and it’s advisable to perhaps consult other stakeholders such as customers and suppliers as well.

This is important for two reasons; the first is a failure to learn the lessons from this Pandemic will set you up badly for the next one, and there will be a next one! And secondly, explore the options you might have that can lead to a win-win.

These options include:

• Offering home working but on terms that the business can control and continue to benefit from;

• Hybrid working facilitating some time in an office and some time at home;

• Improvements to the current office working environment – enhancements to both work, meeting and social areas can entice employees back in;

• Improved social connectivity, reasons for people to come to work; and

• Flexible start/stop times giving people options when they make the commute.

Being able to effectively answer that questions “does this position allow for home working” is crucial for hiring managers today. It doesn’t matter what your answer is necessarily – but your answer, yes or no, must be convincing and compelling in order to keep your chosen candidate engaged.

Because if it’s not, in a very short period of time you will experience staff shortages that will hurt the bottom line.

What’s next?

nem Australasia have been operating a flexible working policy for more than 20 years. You might want to talk to us about what we’ve learned and how we’ve gone about it successfully for more than two decades.

So, act now, before your hiring managers are shifting uncomfortably in their seats with this simple question.

Author: Richard Moss, Partner nem Australasia

This article is based on research and opinion available in the public domain.