The working landscape is constantly changing and evolving, and this is forcing organizations to become agile enough to adapt. Hybrid work is now a precondition for organizations to attract new talent, retain existing talent, and forge a competitive advantage.

As well as hybrid working, enterprises have discovered that hybrid hiring is rapidly expanding talent pools, and they no longer need to restrict their hiring processes to their immediate location.

The Hays report, “Workplace Realities for 2022” reports that “The ability to work remotely increases flexibility for both employees and employers; expanding where employees can work from, and employers can hire from in the future. It also raises the possibility of hiring people to work remotely from abroad (or ‘telemigration’).”

This wider talent pool increases the number and the quality of candidates available to organizations.

The benefits of hybrid hiring

Broader talent pools

One of the key benefits of hybrid hiring is an expanded talent pool.

With digital transformation increasing at a startling rate, the realization is emerging that there are not enough trained professionals available to tackle the jobs of today and tomorrow.

According to Salesforce & IDC, 1 in 6 people in the U.K., for example, have low or no digital skills, meaning that by 2030, 9 out of 10 employees will need to learn new skills to do their job.

Organizations who cast their recruitment net beyond what they deem a commutable distance, i.e., outside of their city or state, or even abroad, gives them far more access to diverse and better qualified people.

Wagestream, a fast-growing FinTech, noted 85% of their employees were London-based before the pandemic. In a news article by the London Evening Standard, that figure had changed to 50%.

“The accelerated shift to digital is having a major impact on the jobs we do and the skills we need for a resilient and prosperous future,”

Zahra Bahrololoumi, CEO Salesforce

Retaining and attracting new employees

An organization’s employees are its greatest asset.

Since the onset of the increase in hybrid work, employers have had to reassess their workplace culture to accommodate their staff working remotely. Employees were thrust into a less familiar environment, that overall has more benefits than what they were previously used to.

With less time spent doing an exhausting daily commute, workers tend to be less stressed, more motivated, and more productive.

Workers now have choices that didn’t exist before, and this has resulted in a mass reconsideration of what they want – and what they don’t want – in their working life.

Increased diversity

Another potential benefit of hybrid hiring is increased diversity, equality, and inclusion throughout an organization’s workforce.

Research has shown that women were more adversely affected by the pandemic than men. This was due to a number of factors, including female employment being more concentrated in worse-hit sectors, and women being more likely to take a greater role in childcare and caring for family members. These factors mean that women were more likely to burnout, downshift their career, and even exit the labor market during the crisis.

Other groups could also be of great benefit to those organizations implementing hybrid hiring. According to a 2021 Bureau of Labor Statistics report, over 6 million people in the U.S. workforce have some form of disability. The employment rate for disabled people in that period was 52.7% compared to 81% for non-disabled people.

What may seem like a simple commute to a physical workplace for some, might be a huge challenge to others. A hybrid approach can go a long way towards levelling the playing field.

Diversity strengthens organizations and cultures, and if leaders actively support groups who face barriers to succeed, it could help build a better world of work.

Barriers to a high-performing hybrid workplace

Sourcing and retaining talent and creating sustainable, high-performing hybrid workplaces are dependent on organizations addressing both human and technology-related barriers. The top five barriers to adopting a hybrid work model include:

1. Lacking the right technology and equipment in the home setups (31%)
2. Poor home/remote network performance (29%)
3. Expanded security risks (27%)
4. Lack of visibility across the network (26%)
5. Lacking the right technology and equipment in the traditional office (26%)

To identify and troubleshoot issues quickly and ensure organizations can optimize the hybrid digital experience, there needs to be greater visibility over their network.

IT Decision Makers (ITDMs) say the top five challenges with current visibility/monitoring solutions are:

1. Multiple tools that give conflicting data, delaying root cause analysis and issue resolution (42%)
2. Lack of visibility into the availability, performance and usage of cloud resources (41%)
3. Lack of unified visibility across the entire technology infrastructure (35%)
4. Too much data and not enough context or actionable insight (36%)
5. Data is not accessible or usable by all who need it (33%)

Investing in visibility and the hybrid workforce

After adopting the new hybrid working dynamic, where they are the ones in control, employees are finding that they can do their jobs in a way that works best for them, while enjoying the freedom to live their personal lives. Many don’t want to go back to the office.

So, many in talent acquisition and retention are committed to investing in new technologies and ways of working to attract new talent and futureproof their business.

By embracing new technology and committing to a hybrid work environment, organizations will increase productivity, allow for a better customer and employee experience, and ultimately drive greater revenue. But all this tech investment will need to be managed by careful monitoring and troubleshooting.

Unified communication and collaboration has become far more complex since the adoption of hybrid working. Multi-vendor platforms, multiple disparate devices, numerous locations and networks, and lack of visibility can cause ongoing problems.

In a hybrid working world, data and analytics are crucial to understanding end-user experience and performance. Being able to see every level of your hybrid working ecosystem provides layers of intelligence and insights that create team cohesion, enable cost management, and allow innovation and growth.

Want to know more about future-proofing your hybrid workplace?