During the past year, employers and employees have become more comfortable with the notion of working remotely. What began as a temporary arrangement due to global health concerns has turned into a strategic option for many organizations that wish to add flexibility to their workforce, expand their talent pool beyond local office locations, and attract new staff. This new hybrid workforce may be here to stay, but employers must do things to meet such an environment’s varying needs.
What is a hybrid workforce?
A hybrid workforce means the staff is untethered to a physical work location 100% of the time, allowing them the flexibility to combine workdays from home with workdays in the office. In this scenario, employees can choose to work some days in the office, some at home, or a set number of employees work from home regularly while another set works from the office regularly.
In addition to providing flexibility, employers must enable the necessary tools to facilitate a hybrid workforce. It means securing the proper equipment, configuring effective communications systems, and protecting employee and employer interests by creating a secure online environment that doesn’t compromise the employer’s infrastructure or the employee’s at-home network.
While employers must be mindful of issues, there are various combinations employers can leverage regarding a hybrid workforce, as the goal is to achieve maximum productivity rather than in-office attendance.
Benefits of a hybrid workforce
The benefits of a hybrid workforce are numerous for the employer and the employee. The key to making such an environment successful is ensuring it’s a win-win for both sides.
Lowered costs for the employer
With a hybrid work environment, employers require less office space. As a result, there are lower costs for real estate, utilities, equipment, insurance, commuting subsidies, and more. If revenue remains constant or even grows, these savings go directly to an organization’s bottom line.
Greater employee retention
With flexibility being the name of the game among employers and their staff, many recruiters find that candidates value flexibility as much as other benefits. When employers offer flexibility, retention soars, and turnover decreases, leading to the reduced cost associated with recruiting, hiring, and training.
Wider pool to recruit from
Because in-office attendance is less of an issue with a hybrid workforce, employers can cast a wider net when attracting the most talented candidates. Talent competition has become fiercer because of the prevalence of hybrid working environments, but those who incorporate effective marketing strategies will have an advantage.
Recruitment marketing campaigns, if used successfully, enable organizations to attract the best talent for their openings, even if the candidate resides across town or the country. Recruiters must now be excellent marketers, utilizing strategies that incorporate social media and marketing attribution to determine which recruitment campaigns result in more conversions.
Knowing which campaigns attract more qualified candidates that ultimately lead to hiring is what marketing attribution does for recruiters.
Marketing attribution models
As is the case with marketing professionals, recruiters must understand marketing attribution capabilities to refine their outreach strategies when searching for the best candidates. The attribution models recruiters must know include single-touch and multi-touch models.
Single-touch attribution
Single-touch attribution models include first-touch and last-touch models, where the full credit of attracting candidates is given solely to one interaction.
First-touch. The first-touch model gives credit to the first interaction a candidate has with the company. While a successful candidate may see the same recruitment ad across multiple platforms and devices, only the first engagement counts as leading to a successful hire.
Last-touch. Like the first-touch model, the last-touch approach gives full credit to a single engagement. The only difference is this engagement occurs right before the candidate converts or submits their application. While there may be other interactions, the last one is the superior engagement that receives the credit.
Multi-touch attribution
Multi-touch attribution models are similar to single-touch models. The only difference is multi-touch models count other engagements during the recruitment journey as contributing to the final hire.
The linear attribution model gives equal credit to every engagement during the recruitment journey. Whether there are two or ten interactions, each one will receive an equal amount of credit for the conversion.
Time decay. This approach counts every touch point during the journey. The difference here is that the closer the engagement is to the final conversion, the more credit it receives. For example, with five engagements, the first engagement receives 10 percent of the credit, and each subsequent engagement receives incrementally more credit leading to conversion.
Position-based or U-shaped models assign 40% of the credit during a journey to the first and last interactions each. The remaining 20% of the credit is evenly divided among all other engagements, no matter how many there are.
Custom attribution models are more complex than other models but potentially provide greater insight. There are no set credit percentages with a custom attribution model, as each organization determines which touch points deserve the most credit during the recruitment journey. The rates are different for each company and can even be different for individual recruitment campaigns.
Which approach works best?
Attribution models have proven to be valuable tools for seasoned marketing professionals. Its use allows marketers to pinpoint which strategies and tactics work best when implementing ads and campaigns. The data retrieved from such models enable marketers to tweak and refine their approach until the ideal customer journey finds configuration.
The good thing about using attribution models in recruiting is that one size does not fit all. Recruiters should choose which attribution model works best for their organization and campaign. When utilized successfully, attribution models can help recruiters find, attract, and secure the best candidates to maximize the effectiveness of hybrid workforce.
(The author Cam Sivesind is a communication specialist and senior content writer for LeadsRx. The views expressed in this article are his own)
