Clocking on: WFH no good for career advancement

Working from home may be a career-limiting move as more companies push employees to return to the office five days a week. But recruiters have sent a warning to employers | POLL

Brighter Super employee Megan Lind says working partly from home gives her the flexibility to look after her family. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Working from home may be a career-limiting move as companies push more employees to return to the office five days a week. But recruiters have warned employers that workers still value flexibility.

Robert Half director Nicole Gorton said there had been a noticeable change in recruitment, with more organisations stipulating new hires work in the office four or five days a week. “Previously when hiring someone, a company may have allowed people to work remotely, but now they are saying they need people to work on site,” said Ms Gorton.

She said “not everyone is happy” with the change, particularly those with more senior roles in an organisation. “It can be a life stage thing with people in the 20 to 35 age group wanting to come into the office,” she said. “Those in the middle of their career are saying, ‘I know what I am doing, I can work remotely, so why do I need to come in?’.”

Ms Gorton said job candidates were rejecting roles that mandated working from the office, but this could limit career advancement. “Companies are saying you can’t build your career from your bedroom,” she said.

Businesses were facing more challenges, whether that be from new technologies such as AI or high interest rates, and they believed they needed people together to work collaboratively on solutions and new ideas.

Robert Half director Nicole Gorton

“Companies may have parked projects over the Covid-19 period, but now they are back and they need the problem-solving skills of people working in the office,” she said.

Ms Gorton said the mandates to return to the office would not mean the end of flexibility entirely. “People will still be given leeway to drop the kids off at school or take time off to run errands,” she said. “The work day has become more fluid.”

Two-thirds (65 per cent) of more than 2400 readers who recently participated in an online poll conducted by The Australian believe employers should insist staff return to the office five days a week.

That follows Tabcorp, the NSW government, Amazon and Flight Centre all mandating its employees return to the office five days a week as a permanent default position.

However, not every business is pushing that agenda. Brisbane-based Brighter Super has just signed a new enterprise agreement with its 270 employees that increases work from home flexibility. For young mother Megan Lind, that that allows her to work up to three days at home as a digital engagement manager. “As a young mum, it is amazing to have this flexibility,” said Ms Lind. “I have a two-year-old and it really provides a work-life balance. It means you are not always doing a mad rush into the city.”

Ms Lind, who moved from New Zealand last year to take up the role, said flexibility was a real drawcard for young families, especially if a child was ill and one parent had to stay home.

“I am lucky that my husband also has flexibility in his job,” she said. Working from home did not negatively impact productivity, she added.

Vincent Brown, the global executive director of recruitment firm Morgan McKinley, said that while there had been a push to get people back to the office, particularly in government and the financial sector, flexibility re­mained a top priority for workers.

“That hybrid model of working from home is here to stay,” he said. “Before people would maybe do one day in the office a week, but now they are required maybe to do three.”

He said companies that were too tough in mandating a working from the office model could see their available talent pool for new roles shrink by up to 50 per cent, particularly in technical roles.