Our latest survey went out in February and was well received with 250 people responding. The aim of the research was to find out more about current candidates and employees, their current work patterns, the prevalence of hybrid working and their future aspirations for the world of work.
The results reiterated the strong preference for hybrid working that we found in our survey in October 2021, which showed 63% wanted a hybrid working arrangement. This latest survey showed 71% want hybrid working. The survey then dug deeper into this finding and provided great insights as to where and how candidates are working now, and where they aspire to be.
We published the online questionnaire in our weekly newsletter and on our social media channels.
About our respondents
CJ Talent specialises in senior roles, so it was anticipated that high numbers of our respondents would hold senior level positions. However, the results exceeded our expectations, with 86% describing themselves as Manager level and above.
- 52% are Manager or senior level
- 34% are Director or C-Suite level. We also wanted to know how many were currently job searching and this again was a very high majority
- 84% of respondents are either activity looking for a role or keeping an eye out
Key findings
Type of roles
The clear leading functions that our respondents work in are:
- Finance 24%
- Marketing 22 %
- HR 15%
All other functions falling below 4% each.
Company size
Most work for large size companies of over 250 employees – 38%.
Current work pattern
- 41% are currently full time
- 22% 4 day week
- 19% 3 day week
Preferred working pattern
- 40% – 3 day week
- 37% – 4 day week
- 14% – full time
So, although 41% currently work full time only 14% want to work full time.
Hybrid Working – defined as a mix between office and remote working
71% want Hybrid working and of those 48% want part time hybrid and 23% full time hybrid.
90% of respondents think Hybrid Working is the future working pattern that will be adopted by businesses.
This is clearly the most favoured work arrangement and the way forward for companies who want to attract the best talent and CJ’s talent!
Remote working
Compared to Hybrid, fully remote is less popular with only 24% stating that they want want to work fully remotely.
Office based
Only 3% want office based working. At CJ Talent we were not surprised at this statistic as we hear this from our candidates every day.
Conclusion
This is a survey of senior level employees. It clearly shows the demand at this level for hybrid working whether that be in a part time or full time capacity. The fact only 3% want purely office-based working shows that this way of working is extremely unattractive to senior employees, providing a good steer to companies for their recruitment and retention strategies today and in the future.
Over the last six months we have surveyed 500 employees, and the conclusion is overwhelmingly in favour of hybrid working. As a recruiter we are strongly in favour of this approach and encourage all our clients to provide hybrid flexibility in all their roles.
