As a leading Financial Recruitment Specialist with exceptional client relationships, we are constantly talking with our clients and fielding questions on a variety of topics. By far the hottest topic at the moment is the subject of working from home and if the decision to return to office is affecting their ability to attract and retain talent.
As recruiters we are also constantly talking with our candidates, and we are hearing from them, loud and clear, that a company’s work from home / office policy is important to them, in more cases than not.
Instead of simply sharing our opinion with our clients we thought it best to back this up with actual numbers and figures. We believe this subject is extremely important because the financial recruitment industry is currently in a heavily “candidate driven” phase.
We decided to conduct a survey which directly addresses this subject. Over 2500 survey requests went out to active finance candidates – predominantly Western Cape based – and the results were extremely interesting.
What was not surprising is that 70% of employees chose a hybrid WFH model.
However, if a new opportunity came up that was 100% in office about 40% would not even look at it, meaning that many roles are being declined straight away without even looking at it further.
What is even more interesting is that if those working on a hybrid model were asked to return 100% to office, almost 68% said they would look for other opportunities.
Additional interesting facts include that the overwhelming majority preference for hybrid model days in office is 2 days a week.
Considering the time we spend in traffic every day, what is not surprising is that 65% of respondents thought they are more productive at home.
When presenting roles and or trying to attract candidates we are seeing evidence of all of the above, and we can attest to the fact that this policy, one way or another, is affecting recruitment of finance professionals in all sectors.
