![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.recruitireland.com\/advice-centre\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/7L3DJYDRYX2FCDNVDUAMY3WDQI-jpg-1440\u00d7810--300x166.jpg\")
She anticipates a likely pushback against the balance generally being struck at present and suggests there is a need for a more clinical assessment of how well hybrid and other arrangements work if it is to be resisted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is definitely a push towards getting everybody back into the office and we are going to see that more and more, particularly if the job market loosens up,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the only way we [Irish workplaces] are going to be able to keep hybrid model is for it to be successful, but we have to be able to define what that success looks like. And to be able to measure it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the moment, there\u2019s an absence of clear measurables and honesty in the discussion. All the employees will say we\u2019re very productive at home. All the employers will say: \u2018We\u2019re not so sure about that.\u2019 But they\u2019re not measuring it. And I think it\u2019s the measurement that\u2019s really, really important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruairi Guckian, whose company GHR Consulting works with and advises around 60 small- and medium-sized businesses in Galway on human resources issues, believes many companies struggled to put structured policies in place around rapidly changing work practices during Covid. He thinks it became something of a free-for-all as many employees simply said: \u201cI don\u2019t want to work in the office any more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, he says, \u201ccompanies are trying to put a little bit of structure on the situation and we would certainly be advising them to have a policy in place.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing is a lot of clients requiring employees to attend maybe two or three days a week, usually around Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, so they can schedule meetings and things like that, but focused in midweek because nobody wants to be in the office on a Friday,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n He doesn\u2019t see that changing as long as many employees have fairly easy options. As he sees it, staff retention is a \u201cbig thing\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cYou are trying to retain your employees and to do that companies need to offer some kind of flexible thing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n He and his own staff finish every working week a few hours early and he feels companies seeking to go back to how things were before Covid face a particular challenge where Fridays are concerned.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve sat in so many offices and you\u2019re looking at the clock; you\u2019re going out with friends or going on holidays or going away for a weekend away, whatever it is. Friday is a big one for people,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Galway Chamber of Commerce chief executive Kenny Deery says the fall-off in on-site working in the city on Fridays is clear with businesses catering to office workers particularly affected.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are definitely seeing that Thursday is the new Friday phenomenon in some areas. Pubs still benefit from students and the attractiveness of Galway as a weekend destination – we would have a lot of people coming in – but coffee shops are definitely being hit,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cSome are offering a more limited menu on a Friday and even closing on a Monday as a lot of businesses concentrate on bringing people in on the midweek days.\u201d<\/p>\n He says the chamber finds Fridays to be \u201ctricky days\u201d for hosting events.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile businesses are still keen to be supportive, they are telling us they don\u2019t have the people in and are struggling to fill the table,\u201d says Deery.<\/p>\n At Intuity Technologies, a Galway-based IT firm, Sarah McCarthy, the head of human resources, says flexible working is as big an issue as pay when recruiting candidates.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I\u2019m doing my pre-screens, one of the first questions I might be asked is: \u2018How many days a week do I have to be in the office?\u2019 It\u2019s as important as salary at the moment,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n The candidates are likely pleased with what they hear.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a hybrid-working policy, with employees expected to be in the office three days per week. That\u2019s intended to help with team interaction, people\u2019s wellbeing, to help new hires and make sure that people are growing within their roles,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t actually have anchor days at the moment but Tuesdays and Wednesdays tend to be the most popular days and a lot of teams kind of have a bit of a second schedule in terms of what days they\u2019re in.\u201d<\/p>\n Beyond that, she says, they too view Fridays differently.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the other days we start at half eight and we finish at half five but then on Fridays we only work until half one. So we\u2019re running on a four and a half day week and at the moment it\u2019s going really well. It\u2019s a huge benefit to a lot of the staff and it\u2019s looking like it\u2019s going to be here to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n With many of the staff living a significant distance away from the Ballybrit office, few, predictably enough, come in for the shortened day.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been in a couple of Fridays lately,\u201d says McCarthy, and the \u201cabsolute max\u201d is 10 people in the office.<\/p>\n She lives in Limerick, having returned there from Dublin, in part because of property prices.<\/p>\n Elsewhere, McCarthy says, she has friends working for bigger, multinational firms in the tech sector where moves to bring employees back in more have \u201ccome as a shock\u201d to the workforce.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople have got used to having the flexibility of remote work and I don\u2019t see that changing,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n McCarthy says that people would be prepared to take pay cuts to work more from home. \u201cI think that\u2019s going to be a challenge for companies to change, because people have kind of got used to it now,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.recruitireland.com\/advice-centre\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/MVCNO3ASHFB2XJLZNYBNJDIPH4-jpg-1440\u00d71440--300x288.jpg\")