Home, Hybrid, Office

Home, Hybrid, Office

We all recall how the world of work was turned on it’s head in 2020 when Covid hit us. For those not furloughed, most ended up working from, or trying to work from, home. We all soon learned to use Zoom and Teams, and these became as normal as using the phone. As things started to move back to normal, companies, and employees, had to make the choice of sticking with the full time working from home model, bringing everyone back into the office, or a hybrid mixture of the two. Where leases were flexible, or short term, leaving workers at home could reduce costs hugely, whereas a hybrid model may mean paying for space that is empty for a good chunk of the week, unless the decision to find smaller premises was taken. Bringing everyone back into office would mean going back to familiar times, but at the risk of losing those that really benefited from the time working from home. The biggest risk was losing staff to companies prepared to stick with the new world we found during Covid.

However, as with most things, it is never that simple of clear cut. Many people who wished to continue working from home began to feel isolated, losing any link with the identity of their employer, many suffering with loneliness and mental health issues. At GSA, we still see many candidates looking for 100% home working, but there are a surprising number either looking for a hybrid environment or even full office based. The company of colleagues has been missed.

But the rush back to hybrid or office based working can cause issues if a company has previously decided to offer fully remote working. We have seen clients spend two years recruiting highly skilled, fully remote, resource, located all over the UK, many more than a 4 hour drive away, only for the company to change its policy and decide it wants everyone office based! 

The working model needs to be carefully considered, properly executed, and fully committed to for the long term. It is critically high on the agenda for most potential recruits, and is often more important the salary.