On the 26th of March 2020, the UK faced a swift and unexpected lockdown. Businesses went into a state of panic, not having foreseen or ever experienced anything like this before.

During this time, employers and employees identified that they could competently and successfully manage to work remotely—and that in reality this offers a better, healthier and happier work-life balance for all involved.

So, with this new professional hybrid office culture in place, how do we actively recruit and retain talent?

With hybrid working, employers and employees need to have and display trust in one and other, mainly due to limited visibility—it is an adult work environment, and it needs to be treated with respect. I believe that employees today do not benefit from a micromanagement, carrot and stick, 90’s era approach to work and perform better when they feel they are in a secure, trusting, professional environment.

I personally believe a more ‘human’ approach to recruitment is necessary today, with family values at the core of talent retention and recruitment. This approach encourages personal and departmental task setting, and human customer engagement over the suit-and-tie KPI approach. Progression opportunities are to be available for those who want them, but also require identifying who amongst your team are comfortable in their roles and prefer to master their trade.

Prioritizing skills when recruiting and identifying these traits in candidates

In our niche industry, I personally feel that communication is key above all else. It is important to consider that everyone is an individual, and hands-on life experience can sometimes be more valuable to a business than qualifications.

In time, you can teach someone how to do a role, but you can’t teach a person how to be themselves. Identifying a candidate’s qualities at an interview stage is key to building a successful and harmonious team. Ask yourself, for instance, “Will this person integrate with our business and clients, do they display the right qualities and are they a team player?”

Maintain high levels of employee engagement and morale

Maintaining employee engagement and morale in a hybrid world can sometimes be tough, but I think we find a nice balance in John Mason International. This is done at a business and departmental level through ‘Bake Offs,’ employee profit sharing schemes, business-funded team building days, incentivized schemes such as employee health services, or simple ‘team time’ away from the shackles of the desk.

John Mason International has recently received “Great place to work” accreditation and I believe this is down to the office culture that has been developed and preserved through choosing the right people and retaining them.

How have advancements in technology impacted your recruitment process?

I believe we as an industry will shortly face a major challenge in the form of AI-based technology. The perfect CV writing tool, regardless of competency level, communication skills and personability is a click away. This tool combined with online purchasable accreditations creates a need for the recruiter to be able to identify a strong candidate through means of their professional work experiences and ability to communicate as a person, at the interview level.