Why We Stay Hybrid
When I first started in recruitment in 1997 it was considered a badge of honour to be the first into the office in the morning and/or the last to leave late into the evening.
Back then it was mandatory for everyone to work in the office on a Tuesday evening until 9pm. Late finishes like this were very common in our industry and across the client base we worked with.
I hated it. I resented it. Doing this 9pm finish meant I wasn’t home until 10pm and the result was I was totally useless on a Wednesday.
It was a ridiculous idea.
I’m glad we got rid of it.
Fast-forward 26 years…
I wrote a blog in January about 2023 being the year of THE GREAT EXPECTATION.
Within this I suggested that businesses have to “Give certainty and clarity over their operating model” or risk employees voting with their feet.
The “Flexible v Hybrid v Back full time” debate continues to rumble and is one of the top 3 motivators for your employees choosing to stay with you. It is also top of the agenda for potential candidates choosing whether or not they want to work for you.
We have seen a large number of businesses get this wrong. Some have got it very badly wrong.
As the CEO of a Business that has been acknowledged as a “World Class Employer” seven times by Best Companies, I am often asked what I have decided to do here at Macildowie.
My answer… “I’ve decided not to decide” is my attempt at being humorous… but there’s truth to it.
The Macildowie Group have three offices. Macildowie Nottingham, Macildowie Leicester and Signet Resources in Maidenhead.
Culturally all three are completely aligned.
But their demographics are different and at an individual level, where they’re at in the employee life-cycle is very different.
By empowering each Leadership Team, by accepting their own wants/needs/desires, by involving every employee we have fully embraced “flexible-hybrid”. Our people work from where they need to, when they need to and how they need to.
We run a monthly employee engagement pulse survey to help us make real time decisions that positively impact on our happiness and help ensure that we don’t dictate a one size fits all operating model.
We continue to involve everyone in helping to make Macildowie the best that we can be.
We check it’s working on a monthly basis as we realise that things can change quickly.
We are a recruitment company who want to make it possible for all of our employees to be the best version of themselves without worrying about trying to squeeze their personal commitments into a rigid business structure.
By empowering people to choose where to work from we believe that we have balanced the productivity versus creativity versus culture versus personal development conundrum.
We have delivered 5 all-time monthly Best performances in the past 9 months.
We’re staying hybrid because we hate presenteeism. We’re staying Hybrid because it enhances our culture. We’re staying hybrid because we recognise that wellbeing is crucial to sustained success. We’re staying hybrid because we want you to be able to drop the kids at school, pick the kids up from school, build your own routine and structure into your working week and come into the office as often as you want to.
We’re staying hybrid because it works.
