WANT

Jul 22, 2023

Mandate 5 days a week in the office In a tight labour market, skilled workers will remain wary of employers who don’t offer the flexibility to work from home, says Sarah Green Carmichael for Bloomberg Opinion. Some companies are requiring employees to come to the office every day but many skilled workers aren't excited about jobs that lack flexibility. (Photo: iStock/monkeybusinessimages) BOSTON: It’s hard to hire good people - and at some companies, it’s harder than others. New data from Scoop Technologies, reported by Bloomberg News, found that firms that require employees to come to the office every day are adding employees at a slower rate than those that offer flexibility . “Companies with one-day-a-week rules expanded staff by almost 5 per cent over the past year,” the report reads, “compared with 2.6 per cent at five-days-a-week businesses.” The clear implication: A five-day-a-week office job is a last choice for many workers. Of course, there are caveats - perhaps Scoop, which consults on hybrid staffing, has a vested interest in sharing these numbers. Perhaps a firm that is fully in-office is a different type of company - a slower-growing, more traditional one, with fewer reasons to add headcount. There could also be regional variations; United States mobile phone data suggests workers have headed back to offices in Salt Lake City and Omaha much faster than in Philadelphia and Cleveland. A sudden increase in the unemployment rate might make workers less picky. But even if the unemployment rate does increase, elite talent will retain a lot of leverage. Plus, Scoop’s findings echo something I’ve been hearing from job hunters for months: They just aren’t excited about roles that lack flexibility. Although a desire for work-life balance is a big driver, the reasons for their reluctance go much deeper. The most highly qualified workers may not be willing to commute five days a week. (Photo: iStock/Wachiwit) WHY MAKE WORKERS SHOW UP IN PERSON ALL THE TIME? First, there’s what a five-day-a-week mandate says about a company’s culture. It sends a powerful signal, and not a positive one. Candidates are left wondering why it’s so important to senior managers that they show up in person all the time: Are there performance problems at the company? Do leaders not trust their staffers? Is it the kind of place where there will be a lot of arbitrary rules? Do employees have less autonomy? Second, applicants looking for management roles are worried about getting stuck in jobs where, instead of mentoring and coaching their employees, they spend much of their energy taking attendance and enforcing policies they may not agree with. Moreover, they’re worried about their ability to hire down the line: Who will they be able to recruit if they must limit their search to people in the immediate area who are willing to commute five days a week? As I heard from one professional in the energy industry, the most highly qualified people typically have other options - and they are choosing hybrid roles. Related: PREPARE TO PAY SKILLED WORKERS A LOT MORE Perhaps these slow-to-hire, five-day-a-week companies simply aren’t offering enough money. As my colleague Jonathan Levin has written, flexible work has an amenity value. That is, it’s worth something. Executives serious about pushing a five-day-a-week policy may be able to nudge existing employees to come into the office more, but to attract new talent, they will have to pay handsomely. Just how handsomely? Recently, several mid-career men I know were discussing whether they would ever (yes, ever) take a job that required them to go back to the office five days a week. These are skilled professionals; they’ve been to graduate school and work in fields like technology and finance where the labour pool is often tight. One said he would never go back into an office full time for any amount of money. One allowed that he’d consider it - for double his current salary. A third wasn’t sure but had just withdrawn from a final-round interview for a fully in-person job that would have added more than U$50,000 to his annual compensation. He described the boss’s location expectations as one of several red flags. Related: