What is hybrid hiring (and why use it)?
The rise of hybrid and remote working means that more engineering and IT job roles than ever before are being filled by people who aren’t local to a company’s offices. So why aren’t businesses looking into hybrid hiring practices too?
Are you still only looking through your local talent pool and using on-site interviews that may put off candidates who live further afield even for hybrid jobs?
If so, here is a little more about hybrid hiring that might convince you to start using new tools and technologies to find the candidates you’re looking for.
What is hybrid hiring?
Hybrid hiring combines in-person and virtual recruiting approaches to leverage the benefits of both.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought with it challenges and accelerated changes in the jobs market – chiefly, towards more people working from home. Hybrid hiring transforms this change into a positive advantage for companies.
It also makes it easy to integrate other new forms of recruitment technology, such as AI recruitment tools.
What are the benefits of hybrid hiring?
1) Reach out to a broader (and deeper) talent pool
If you’re trying to fill your latest design manager or head of data science jobs in a limited geographic area, you’re placing a big limit on the number of high-quality candidates you will find.
These days, of course, most companies do use recruitment portals to extend the reach of their job adverts to a wider pool of applicants. But ensuring that the recruitment and interview process also takes distant and remote candidates into account is vital.
As a side note, expanding your search in this way sometimes means risking making your talent pool broader yet shallower. Ideally, it’s worth considering using a hybrid hiring strategy alongside the efforts of a professional recruiter who is a specialist in your industry.
They will have sector contacts and knowledge you can harness in your search for the right candidate, making your talent pool deep as well as wide.
2) Find more diverse, motivated candidates
Pairing hybrid hiring practices with a hybrid or remote job role lets you attract excellent candidates who might otherwise be unfairly hindered by entirely in-person recruitment processes or job roles that don’t need to be in-office.
The obvious example here is female candidates. Female representation in engineering jobs, for example, has been rising in current years and there are many excellent female engineering role models.
But the COVID-19 pandemic has had, on average, a much greater effect on female employees than male (as almost any economic disruption invariably does). Women are still more likely to play a greater role in childcare than men. During crisis times, they are more likely to be the member of a family that leaves their job.
Offering hybrid hiring as well as working options may enable these highly skilled professionals to return to the “office”. The same is true of some candidates with disabilities, especially those who may be more susceptible to COVID-19 now that the UK has adopted a “live with the virus” approach that may make commuting risky.
3) Find new candidates and retain your current team
The combination of hybrid hiring and remote or hybrid working is now a huge talent draw and “must-have” that leading candidates are looking for in new engineering and IT jobs they’re considering.
When it comes to your current team, more than two out of three people in a recent survey said they would be likely to switch jobs if they could get more flexibility.
Offering hybrid working is great for your brand and company culture – especially if you’re looking to retain staff. Younger workers, in particular, are coming to expect that a role will enable them to create a better work-life balance – something that’s a benefit for employers too.
Combining this with hybrid hiring shows you care for your team and are enabling them to put virtual and remote first if they want to. In return, you will be more likely to attract great new candidates and keep the team you already have.
Interested in bringing hybrid hiring, AI recruitment tools, and other innovations into your recruitment process?
Let’s talk. Ernest Gordon is a specialist IT and engineering recruitment agency where you’ll find industry experts, the best professionals, and market-leading AI recruitment technology.
Arrange a cost and commitment-free consultation with one of our recruitment specialists today. Let’s see how we can help find you the perfect candidate.