In the ever-evolving landscape of remote work, the debate over its significance persists. In our ‘Talent Insights’ series, Natalia Perkowska, Co-Chief HR Officer at SOFTSWISS, will shed light on the changing dynamics of talent acquisition and recruitment in today’s world.
Remote Work Trends
The 2020 pandemic changed the labour market globally: it launched a trend for remote work, which thousands of companies adopted. A few years later, however, some of them began to recall employees to the office. This was not a suggestion but a requirement from the employer.
The trends here are set by industry giants. For example, Meta obligated its employees to come to the office three times a week. They no longer publish vacancies with the option ‘work online from wherever you want’ either, although they used to support remote work. Apple also requires employees to work from their offline working stations at the office at least three times a week.
Unluckily, people are not too willing to return to the offices or do it very reluctantly. A peculiar study on this topic was released by Future Forum Pulse. Most IT specialists from the US, Britain, Australia, France, Germany and Japan would like to work remotely as part of their working time. About 75% want to have more choice in terms of the work format, and 93% are willing to shape their work schedule themselves.
Over several years, people have really gotten used to a certain degree of freedom that working from home has given. They want to keep a work-life balance, which assumes that they have time to walk the dog during the day, pick up their children from school, or go to the seaside with a laptop packed in hand. This desire is so strong that companies now have to adjust to the requirements of their applicants, and not vice versa.
Therefore, today the opportunity to work from home, no matter where it is located, sounds like a motivating bonus in the IT vacancies.
A vast majority of our candidates prefer remote work, with some interested in hybrid and a minority speaking about being office-based. This is a trend that has spiked from the moment we were all in lockdown and had to learn and adjust to this new reality. Before 2020, working from home was considered a massive bonus, a big reward for achieving something. Now, it is a common expectation, especially in the Tech industry.
Don’t get me wrong, we do have vacancies that require presence in the office (like an Office Manager, for example), but most of our work can be done remotely.
Hybrid Work Insights
Flexible companies meet their employees halfway and offer a hybrid format of work without strict requirements. If it is important for you not to lose the freedom of working remotely when choosing your next workplace, look towards international companies, where cooperation with specialists from all over the world is implied from the outset.
Let me tell you how this can be arranged using the example of our company, SOFTSWISS, a global software developer that employs internationally.
Since day one, we give specialists an opportunity to choose freely where they want to work – in the office or remotely. Thus, we can boast a vast geography of our employees’ residence. They live in Georgia, Poland, Lithuania, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Malta, the Netherlands, Thailand, Estonia, Mexico, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Portugal, Spain and Greece. In Poland, SOFTSWISS has two development centres — in Poznan and Warsaw, but even here, employees are not firmly tied to the office.
Indeed, we communicate a lot online, but we also have meetings and events that make it possible to feel part of a real team of living people. These events include joint meetings, one-on-one conversations, topical streams and Q&A sessions. Happy Hour meetings are also popular in the company: we show each other our pets, share photos from our journeys and sports competitions and joke and laugh a lot.
Alongside that, we have offline communication formats. For instance, Fruitful Talks are held regularly in our offices. The company’s shareholders and managers meet with employees in informal communication over a glass of smoothie and discuss work-related topics. We meet each other at exhibitions, conferences and workshops. But the most longed for and beloved event is the annual employee gathering. For example, earlier this year more than 1,000 SOFTSWISS employees flew from all over the world to Dubai for four days to meet in real life and share experiences. In November, about 1,500 of our specialists flew to the sea from 40 countries for a three-day Values Fest, which was dedicated to the company’s values. Meetings like that do help the team stay charged!
I’ve been working entirely remotely for the past four years and it hasn’t stopped me from achieving or delivering anything that was set out to me. I’ve also been leading large teams remotely, and let me tell you, it is definitely possible. Of course, there are challenges, but we have the technology now to ensure we can connect whenever needed and in whatever format that’s required. All we need is trust in our employees and their ability to be productive wherever they are.
I am a people person and I do like spending time with colleagues at events or social gatherings, but I also love nature and living outside of a city. Having that choice and flexibility of being able to work from anywhere they like is one of the most important factors for most candidates these days when choosing their next job opportunity.
People are more and more focused on their own well-being, especially since 2020. We’ve all realised how important work-life balance is and that it is not just a buzzword. To the majority of candidates, especially in the tech industry, that balance is flexibility. Flexibility to travel, to spend time with family who often live in different cities/countries/continents and to do things out of the four corners of an office. We’ve proven that we can be productive whilst working remotely and so I believe our industry will embrace that and support employees who choose to work from anywhere. Certainly, at SOFTSWISS, we will continue to embrace this style of work!