The coronavirus pandemic has failed to derail the surge in global staff hiring as the jobs being created defy all odds and the current hiring frenzy is set to remain throughout 2022.
Covid-19 was a boon for many sectors and companies, escalating products and services to unprecedented heights as consumers quickly adjusted to a new way of life and means of working. International public companies, in particular, have led the charge of hiring new staff, whilst a number of banks have started to reinvent themselves by employing staff with digital / fintech platform experience rather than traditional bankers. The future of work is now set to be hybrid meaning having the opportunity to work from home and the office. Many employees are now wishing to retain the flexibility they gained working from home during the lockdowns. At AP Executive we are seeing more and more requests from candidates looking for ‘remote or hybrid working opportunities’ while still experiencing all the benefits of workplace interaction. On one hand, this is a major breakthrough in moving towards a more agile and futuristic working environment. On the other hand, there is still a lack of hybrid acceptance from employers or companies’ inability to deliver this level of workplace agility, which is causing great anxiety and burnout amongst staff. Work-life integration is now the buzz words. Traditionally, many workers have demanded a clear definition between work hours and non-work hours known as work-life balance. However, modern commitments and diverse working environments have led to an evolution in the way work and life balance define one another. The concept of work-life integration is based around having the freedom to choose when and where to work and living life in between. Essentially, it’s not so much about how life fits around work anymore, it’s about granting employees the autonomy to fit work around their personal commitments. This way of employing staff is going to be more profound during the coming years.
An example would be an employee would like to view a house they are looking to buy and the only available time is at 3pm in the afternoon and the viewing will be 2 hours once they have driven from the office to the house and back to work. There are two realistic options to assist the staff member - they can take the half day and lose a half day’s work, or they can pick the work-life integration option that involves leaving the office at 2.30pm attending the house viewing then logging back on at home at 5pm to finish urgent work tasks they missed in the afternoon. The second option is an obvious win-win for both the employee and company, with negligible loss of productive hours. This new trend of work will help businesses to retain staff and possibly find new staff if they have this flexibility of working hours and commitments. If you value your staff and do not want to lose them to your competitors then you will need to be flexible with your employees and trust them to do their job out of sight.