Companies With Flexible Work Models Will Win 'Talent Wars'

Editor’s note: This piece is part of our Columnist Network series, which explores the tactical thoughts and actions from Adweek’s community of high-level experts. Today, Shutterstock’s Stan Pavlovsky considers the benefits of his company's talent-focused approach to recruitment and retention. Below, in his own words, he expresses hope and excitement about this new way forward. The challenge Since the pandemic began almost a year and a half ago, we’ve gotten used to collaborating and interacting in ways we never could have imagined. We’ve spent countless hours on Slack and video calls, and we’ve gotten a larger window into our colleagues’ lives by seeing their kitchens and bedrooms (and watching their kids crash their Zoom calls). There are people we’ve worked with closely for upwards of a year whom we’ve never met in person. As Covid-19 vaccinations increase, we have to decide which aspects of pandemic working life we’d like to keep. Even if senior management wanted to, few companies could pull off a hard 180 and call everyone back to the office—at least not right away. There are practical considerations, like the fact that many companies have hired people in other geographic areas as a means of securing top talent, when a mass exodus from New York, San Francisco and other big cities was underway during the pandemic. There has also been a mindset change, which might stick for sought-after talent. For some, a significant commute has become a nonstarter, since they know they can live in the country or the mountains and still be extremely productive—so long as they have a good internet connection. They won’t be willing to go back to how it was. The process Since having an onsite presence is incredibly valuable from a collaboration and innovation perspective, companies will have to figure out how to find a middle ground, which is what we’re doing at Shutterstock. Like many other companies, we are reimagining what our way of working will look like this fall—when some people will be full time in the office, some will be full-time remote, and the majority will be in a hybrid role, going into the office at least one day a week. We realized we had to provide flexibility, since not every employee experienced the pandemic in the same way.Stan Pavlovsky, CEO, Shutterstock As we talked through what our future workforce would look like, we engaged leaders across the company in every function to look closely at our location strategy and ways to evolve our workspace. We also surveyed everyone at Shutterstock, from the senior director level and up, and 76% of them felt they and their teams had been more productive since the transition to remote working, so we knew that returning everyone to the office full time didn’t make sense. We also benchmarked other companies and reviewed industry data. For example, 73% of employees in a Work Trend Index survey said they wanted flexible remote work options to stay, but 67% also said they wanted more in-person work or collaboration after the pandemic. We realized we had to provide flexibility, since not every employee experienced the pandemic in the same way. Some people were immensely productive and loved having commuting time removed from the equation, while others struggled to work with small kids in the background in small city apartments. Meanwhile, others were isolated and desperately missed face-to-face interactions in the office. In addition to wanting to do the right thing for our employees, we realized there’s going to be a “war for talent” coming out of the pandemic—with companies keen to fill open roles and get back to business as usual. Flexibility is a real differentiator in recruiting and an incentive to get people to stay and build their careers with us long term. The takeaway At Shutterstock, we’re expecting multiple benefits to materialize through our new way of working—on top of improving our talent pipeline and employee experience. We believe our reimagined workforce will increase accountability, empowerment and trust, since it allows employees and managers to determine what works best for them and their teams. We also believe flexible work arrangements will give us access to a broader pool of talent and result in greater emotional well-being for our employees and, as demonstrated in our employee survey, increased productivity. At the same time, we are committed to ensuring that our managers are closely working with their teams to encourage time off, breaks and transparent conversations when it comes to workload. We’re also putting together a change management plan and training to address recruiting, onboarding, goal setting and performance, compensation and talent development. When thinking about how we evolve our way of working, we believe we have an opportunity to create an even better workplace globally—one that enables us to be more connected to each other while achieving greater happiness and fulfillment both at work and home. Bottom line: We are so excited about the opportunities offered by this new way of working—opportunities to develop and empower our people, create and innovate more and increase happiness by allowing flexibility. While there’s still much work to be done, we’re bullish about this model and how it sets us up for the future. There’s no going back to how things were in February 2020, and companies that accept this are best positioned to win the “talent wars” and keep their employees happy for years to come. Agencies Plot Their Return to the Office With ‘Best of Both Worlds’ Approach

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Companies That Embrace Flexible Work Models Will Win the 'Talent Wars'

Shutterstock CEO Stan Pavlovsky on how the hybrid workplace is here to stay

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