The benefits of creating a hybrid workforce and managing it are undeniable for most businesses. The best candidates can be attracted to your business by offering them the opportunity to contribute, no matter where they are located.
It’s not easy to make this work. Remote workers require special management and attention to ensure that communication, culture, and team spirit thrive. To get it right, you have to start at the beginning. This means that the recruitment and onboarding processes must be addressed. This isn’t just a nice to have experience. According to research by digital employee experience company NEXTHIN 25% of new hires in IT who experience an ‘underwhelming’ or ‘terrible’ onboarding leave their position. According to the company’s US statistics, organisations waste $2.2bn a year on rehiring tech and IT talent.
Jess Lambourne is Head Of People at production company Mediazoo. She says that their hybrid employment model stipulates the days on which employees must be in the office. This allows the company to develop its culture and build team relationships.
She says that the lack of direct interaction between employees is a major challenge for a hybrid workforce. This makes it harder to assess interpersonal skills in the hiring process. Once new employees are hired, it is even more difficult to foster strong company cultures and build relationships, especially when the team has different schedules.
Onboarding: A Structured Approach
The company’s onboarding process is very structured. The company ensures that all equipment, guides and training sessions are prepared in advance.
Jess says, “Culture is created by the people and management.” As long as the employees give their time to get to know new employees and spend some quality time with them, it’s possible to create a culture remotely. Communication and connection are the most important aspects of any culture.
Jonathan De Kryger is Leader Campus recruitment North Human Resources for payment company Worldline. While traditional in-person interviewing was time-consuming, the adoption of virtual platforms such as Teams has accelerated scheduling and expanded our reach.
De Kryger explains that this evolution, however, has brought with it its own challenges.
He says that assessing candidates remotely requires an entirely different approach. Virtual interviews may be convenient, but they can inhibit the nuanced understanding that comes from face-to-face interactions. “As AI tools become more sophisticated, it becomes harder to read body language and ensure the authenticity of responses from candidates.”
De Kryger says that onboarding remote workers also requires consideration. Online platforms facilitate knowledge transfer, but communicating with remote employees and cultivating company culture is more difficult. Online, it is difficult to recreate the lack of spontaneity and office dynamics which foster camaraderie.
Virtual interviews may be convenient, but they can reduce the nuanced understanding that comes from face-to-face interactions. “As AI tools become more sophisticated, it becomes harder to read body language and ensure the authenticity of responses from candidates.”
De Kryger believes that businesses should find a compelling motivation to bring their employees together at the office. They must see this as an opportunity for collaboration, communication, and the embodiment of the company’s culture. He says that well-designed offices, social events and the opportunity to work together in person can encourage office attendance and improve team cohesion.
It is important to be upfront and clear.
“As a technology firm, it’s not about being able to work remotely. It’s more about how we work and how this is an upfront part of our recruitment process,” says Fiona MasonCHRO, at insurance software provider RDT. Mason says that after the pandemic, they found themselves attracting employees who wanted only to work remotely. “We got smart,” she says. “And are clear about it upfront.”
Onboarding, initial training and early learning are largely a company-based activity, but it may still vary for each role, depending on the needs.
Mason says that while they use technology to save time and administrative work, the focus is still on the human factor. The candidate experience, as a strategy is very important.
Claire Webster Director of HR at Avantia Group (parent company for specialist home insurer Homeprotect) agrees that candidates’ expectations are often the biggest challenge when it comes to hybrid. She says that while flexibility is important to her, she has found that if expectations are not aligned at the beginning, problems can occur later. Webster places emphasis on having ‘contracting discussions’ with candidates in the hiring phase, to ensure everyone is on the exact same page regarding how the business operates.
Webster says that hiring for attitudes and behaviors has never been so important. In a hybrid or remotely-based setup, we need to trust that the employees will stay engaged, make good decisions and own their roles.
I believe that hiring based on attitude and behavior has never been so important. We must have faith that our employees will be engaged, make good decisions and own their roles in a hybrid or remotely-based setup.
The Guiding Principles
To achieve this, the company has developed a series of Guiding Principles that articulate the competencies and behaviors valued by the organization. They are used during the hiring process, and they have been incorporated into the company’s framework for performance management: “We can evaluate not only what people say but also how they say it,” Webster says.
Webster also outlines a few techniques that she uses to attract and evaluate the right candidates. This includes having a strong brand to attract people who align with your organisation, using behavioural and competency assessments, and leveraging technology for hiring. She describes this as “considered usage of AI-powered screeners to help with sifting and video assessments, along with digital onboarding processes.”
She says that by refining hiring strategies to align with the modern workplace, we can continue bringing in top talent and keep up with our changing needs.
It is clear that the hybrid workplace brings new challenges and demands to the table. These were not present in the traditional workplace. The idea that everyone would be in the same place for everything – interviews, onboarding and induction, as well as work itself – was once taken for granted.
