Hybrid employment positively received by new jobseekers

Hybrid working is seen as a positive for career growth by 61% of young employees who have started their first job, due to the flexibility of working between the office and home amongst other benefits. 

This is according to new research from CEMS, the Global Alliance in Management Education, which found that employees who favoured flexible working arrangements believed that hybrid work gave them the freedom to travel while working, improves wellbeing, and reduces costs.

Only 25% of respondents to the global survey of recent CEMS graduates believe that the move to hybrid working will not make any difference to their career prospects at all, while 14% think their career prospects will be negatively impacted by hybrid working.

The employees interviewed, while positive about hybrid working, do not believe in a fully remote work arrangement, as they also believe hat spending face-to-face time with colleagues inside and outside of office hours is vital for career success. This included networking opportunities, innovation, and learning. 

Giorgio Benassi, Group Head of Talent at H&M Group, saw the results as congruent to the trends emerging for young employees working in H&M group, pointing out that graduates favoured the ability to split time between home and office and finding long-term career sustainability through a positive blend of work and life demands, but still being able to network. 

READ MORE: Driving successful employee engagement in a hybrid world

He said, “It will very much depend on how we, as organisations, are able to set coherent hybrid workplace strategies which level the playing field. I believe in the coming years organisations will need to become more intentional with their hybrid workplace strategies, finding ways to maximise people’s time by creating more purposeful ways of being in the office, and at home.”