Articles From the Team
The Hybrid Model
As we move through the (what we all hope) will be the final stages of the pandemic and the last of the lockdowns and orders to work from home, everyone candidates, clients, and recruiters alike are trying to work out and make sense of exactly what the “Hybrid Model” means.
When I first started working in legal recruitment 17 years ago there was no such thing as working from home within the legal profession or to be fair most professions. However as the years went on, working from home (sometimes) became an option for many other professions, especially tech and IT, however it was still frowned upon in the legal sector. Even though flexible working and agile working was talked about within the legal sector pre pandemic it is fair to say that on the whole, most firms preferred and expected to have everyone in the office and a work from home model wasn’t really an option.
Then Covid happened and we ordered to work from home and suddenly the legal profession was dragged into the 21st century and the world of working from home. In the last tow years we have all been working predominantly from home it has become a norm, life has shifted in a big way, people’s outlooks have changed, the work/life balance has a new meaning and it has become apparent that the vast majority of people don’t want to return to the office full time.
There are of course always exceptions to this, we have found that some people have not enjoyed working from home at all for lots of different reasons and want to return to the office fulltime, and others who have made it work so well for themselves that they will only consider fully remote working roles. Speaking to our clients we have found that most firms, are taking this on board and realise that they cannot expect employees to return to the office 5 days per week, and I think nor do they want them too. But they also realise that having an entire workforce permanently working from home isn’t sustainable in the long term either so most law firms are offering the option of the “Hybrid Model”.
The hybrid model is essentially offering people what firms hope will be the best of both worlds. The offering from each firm varies slightly however in essence the hybrid model in the option for people to work 2/3 days per week in the office and rest from home.
This is a great solution and gives people more flexibility and without a doubt a better work/life balance so hopefully the days of being in the office 5 days per week are long gone and never to return for those who prefer a more flexible model.