Does WFH Work For Your Business?
Is WFH the perfect solution or does it have a negative impact on business?
We recently ran a poll on LinkedIn (results detailed below) asking how feasible it is to work from home the majority of the time. We asked this as candidates in all the accounting areas/disciplines that we recruit for are constantly asking us this.
Particularly within audit, we find this more often than not with candidates seeking a minimum of three days per week WFH as starting point. From speaking with candidates, I am aware that the top 5 are doing a high level of WFH, however, for the majority of the clients that we work with this is not feasible for the business to perform as it should with all staff working remotely for more than three days a week.
A conversation we have with clients and candidates alike is that pre Covid, it was very rare that staff worked from home without prior agreement and was not seen as a ‘perk of the job’ or a ‘right’ in some people’s eyes.
WFH occasionally can have its benefits
As I sit here typing this, I am in fact working from my home office as in truth, it has become progressively hotter day by day in the office and I felt it best we all work from home today for our own sanity! And Beau, the office dog is struggling with the sweat box of an office. We do work from home occasionally, but on the whole, we enjoy being in the office together, working as a team and it is, I will say, much more fun with the banter and sharing of ideas.
Additionally, we are speaking to more candidates now who have failed exams and, in some cases, having their training contracts severed as a result. Is this, in part at least, due to a lack of mentoring, and face-to-face nurturing from qualified employees supervising more junior team members?
We have a mixed bag of views with clients, the average would seem to be three days in the office and two from home after the probation period. However, this again poses as issue and many candidates really do feel that this is not necessary, and they should be allowed to WFH from day one.
What are your thoughts on this, I really would be interested to hear your opinion? Do you think that this is the way forward or would you feel it would be better for the team to be in the office as much as possible?
The poll was slightly weighted 52% to 48% in favour of working in the office 3 days or more, so a close-run poll, with those voting being a 50/50 mix of management and non-management connections including HR professionals.
Are we heading towards a fully remote workforce?
We are increasingly speaking to candidates who are seeking roles with a maximum of two days in the office, often less, and some candidates are asking for fully remote positions.
My thoughts perhaps are slightly outdated as I have been working in recruitment for 37 years and the remote working is a new concept bought on by Covid. I remember the days when a candidate would ask to start later or leave earlier to do school runs etc and we would have to ask clients if this would be possible. Often that was not right for the firm as they felt it would set a precedent for others to follow, but now most firms do offer flexitime which is a great improvement.
Offering good benefits, flexible working and a great team environment does assist greatly when we are presenting vacancies to our candidates. However, in this candidate short market, are we now seeing that candidates are pushing the boundaries and does this make it untenable for the smooth and efficient running of our clients’ businesses?
Please do let us know your thoughts on this subject.