How these companies are hiring the right people twice as fast
Analysing the previous year's data revealed a comparable trend: fully flexible organisations increased their staff numbers by 5.6%, while hybrid and office-based firms grew by 4.1% and 2.6% respectively, according to the report.
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Despite the common notion that remote work hampers productivity, organisations that incorporate remote or hybrid work policies are reportedly hiring staff approximately two times faster than their exclusively office-based counterparts, according to a recent analysis.
The study observed that, in the past quarter, firms offering a "fully flexible" remote work policy—i.e., employees can work fully remotely or choose the frequency of office visits—expanded their staff count by an average of 1.9%. This is in contrast with office-centric firms that experienced a mere 0.8% growth. "Structured hybrid" organisations—where employees are required in the office between one to four days per week—saw a growth of 1.5%.
Analysing the previous year's data revealed a comparable trend: fully flexible organisations increased their staff numbers by 5.6%, while hybrid and office-based firms grew by 4.1% and 2.6% respectively, according to the report.
"The resilience of the job market has been rather astonishing, and I wanted to explore where the growth is coming from," explains Robert Sadow, co-founder and CEO of Scoop, a hybrid work management software firm that conducted the study. "Our data shows that, in terms of staff count, fully flexible and 'structured hybrid' employers outperformed entirely office-based firms."
To compile the report, Sadow's team at Scoop paired data from their quarterly Flex Index—which tracks the flexible work policies of around 4,500 companies—with data from PeopleDataLabs regarding the growth of each company's staff. This information is collated from hundreds of public and private sources, such as applicant tracking systems, to establish start or end dates for employees, then aggregates this data at the company level to track staff growth.
Sadow initially speculated that the disparity might be due to the influence of agile, fast-growing tech start-ups that fully embrace remote work or necessitate minimal office presence. However, after dividing the data by company size, he observed a similar trend across all sizes. The gap between fully flexible and hybrid groups decreased and became more uniform. Nevertheless, these groups consistently grew faster than entirely office-based companies, regardless of whether the firm was a small start-up or a large enterprise with over 5,000 employees.
"In every category, office-based firms lag in terms of staff recruitment," Sadow states. "This discovery is quite revealing. It seems that flexible firms have a simpler time recruiting."
Even after excluding tech firms—which, over the past year, have both been active in job cuts and embraced remote work—the trend remained the same. Among all non-tech companies in the sample, those with fully flexible or hybrid arrangements increased their staff at least 0.5% faster than entirely office-based firms across all company sizes.
"Staff recruitment may not be the ideal measure of a company's success, but economic growth tends to mirror where recruitment is increasing," Sadow adds. "It appears that companies requiring less office attendance are faring better, at least in terms of recruitment."
The transition towards remote and hybrid work models significantly alters a company's culture, impacting team dynamics and employee engagement. In this scenario, traditional elements of culture—office spaces, in-person meetings, casual conversations—are replaced with digital equivalents.
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Technology plays a crucial role in facilitating regular interaction and team unity through video conferencing, instant messaging, and collaborative online platforms. Virtual team-building activities can mimic in-person social events, fostering camaraderie despite geographical dispersion.
However, these models present challenges too, such as ensuring clear communication, preventing isolation, and maintaining work-life balance. Therefore, companies must emphasise robust communication, frequent recognition, clear expectations, and a shared vision to cultivate a strong, inclusive culture. This way, they can fully utilise the advantages of remote and hybrid work models while mitigating potential challenges.
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