How Your Candidate Pool Impacts Whether You Hire In-Office, Hybrid, or Remote

Although most U.S. employees have returned to the office since the mass pivot to remote work in 2020, hybrid and remote positions are still highly sought after by job seekers.

It’s no secret that one of the benefits today’s job applicants look for when considering a new job is the option to work from home for better work-life balance. Companies offering that flexibility have a decided edge over companies that don’t.

Many employers have found that remote workers perform just as well as in-office staff (if not more so), but others have struggled to make remote or hybrid positions work for them.

Ultimately, whether you decide to hire in-office, hybrid, or remote for your open position will depend on many factors, not the least of which is the candidate pool you have to choose from. 

Understanding Your Candidate Pool

Understanding the pool of available talent for your open position can help you decide whether to offer hybrid or remote options in order to attract the best candidates for the role. 

Your past hiring experiences and the effectiveness of your hiring process will give you insight into the volume of candidates available for your positions. In the past, have you easily attracted the candidates you were seeking, or have you had difficulty finding the right applicants for those roles?

Another way to understand the candidate pool is to research what your competitors are offering for similar roles in the way of flexible work options. If you find that most businesses are offering remote options for similar roles, and you’re trying to hire someone to be 100% in-office, you might struggle to attract top talent.

Deciding When To Hire In-Office, Hybrid, or Remote

The type of position you’re filling will influence your decision to offer remote or hybrid options. 

Generally speaking, positions in areas like accounting, manufacturing, retail, banking, and administration will typically have the candidate pool needed to support 100% in-person jobs. But there are a few circumstances where you might benefit from offering hybrid or remote options:

1. You’re Targeting a Highly Specialized Candidate 

Our clients are often best served by hybrid or fully remote options when their position is highly specialized. For example, two recent clients were looking for designers/drafters with very specific industry and software expertise, and there simply was not a big enough candidate pool available for a local hire.

We’ve also had a few clients in the past year who were seeking such a narrow skill set that, although their preference was in-person, hiring someone remotely was the only way to fill the position.

2. You’re Offering Compensation That’s Below the Market Pay Range

If the compensation you’re offering is below what’s being offered for similar roles in the marketplace, you may struggle to bring in the candidates you need. 

If raising the offered salary isn’t an option due to budget constraints, you’ll need to consider making adjustments elsewhere. One way to do that is to offer a hybrid or 100% remote option for the position.

3. A Combination of the Two: Lower Compensation and a Specialized Role

If you’re contending with both factors, it’s even more important to consider offering remote or hybrid options in order to be in the running for qualified talent.

Considerations for Hiring Remote or Hybrid Employees

Offering flexible work options for any position will result in a larger candidate pool, more qualified candidates, and likely a faster hire. 

Offering remote and hybrid options greatly increases your candidate pool, both because more candidates are drawn to these options and because it expands the geographical radius you can recruit within. People may be willing to drive to your office 30 miles two days a week, but not every day. Recruiting for a remote position enables you to recruit literally from anywhere.  

If you do choose to expand your candidate pool through offering remote or hybrid positions, there are a couple of things you should keep in mind:

1. Frame the position’s schedule before going to market with the job posting

For example, if it’s a hybrid role, are there specific days of the week you want the employee to be in the office? How many days can they work from home? Is there a training period where the new hire needs to be in the office 100% before they go hybrid or remote? 

Determine these things before advertising for the job opening and make sure to include the details in your posting.

2. Make a plan to provide hybrid or remote employees with the tools to do their job

Before hiring a remote or hybrid employee, employers should have a plan in place to provide them the tools they’ll need to do their job from home. 

This includes equipment like a computer, extra monitor, cell phone, and so on, as well as any other tools they’ll need to complete their work just as effectively as they do when they’re in the office.

Having these things in place before you hire will help ensure a smoother recruiting, hiring, and onboarding process for your open position and set your new employee up for success.

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