Talent wars continued: The three personas you must embrace now to scaleup and stay competitive:
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, a pandemic. Within a few weeks, our lives entered into uncharted territory. Schools shifted to virtual learning, the hospitality sector all but stopped, and we tried to quickly adapt to the soon pervasive combination of work from home, learn from home, entertain at home, and workout at home. Big tech, big pharma, and big financial institutions all began to try to figure out how to navigate.
Google was out in front of the work from home movement. At the end of July 2020, Google allowed its employees to continue working from home through June 2021. This was a brave move covering Google’s ~200,000 employees and gave others the green light to also extend remote working policies. Big tech companies, including Amazon, Salesforce, and Facebook, have embraced a hybrid model with a combination of working from the office and at home. Others, like Spotify and Twitter, are saying it’s OK to work anywhere.
As a search partner to some of the fastest-growing tech companies, I have found that there is not a “one size that fits all” for cultures and situations. Some companies have continued to embrace an in-office culture, and others in the proptech space, for example, the return to the office, in some capacity for global workforces, is key to the success of their long-term business. But for what is reported to be 90% of companies, the best strategy is one that allows for three options. First, the in-office employee. Some people prefer to be in an office and for them, the proximity to their home is key. The second is the hybrid in-office worker. This person wants to spend time with their peers in person and be in the office from time to time, and also enjoys the flexibility of remote work. Finally, there are some who have been both highly effective, and in many cases more efficient, and happier working 100% remotely. The question becomes — how does a company embrace all three personas?
I’ve recently spoken to several $100 to $200M ARR global scale up company CEOs who have opened this optionality to all. To help ensure there is no “onsite favoritism” — which could be a real and unintended consequence of a well-intended policy (disproportionately affecting women) — one CEO, plus her direct reports, will split the year into thirds. They will work in each of these situations — in the office, hybrid, and fully remote — for one-third of the year to try to eliminate stigma, and to build real empathy as well as to streamline processes to allow the company to best support these options.
This is beautiful in its simplicity and, so far, the best solution I have heard of to ensure a highly competitive approach to managing talent with empathy while also creating a cultural advantage.
