The pandemic has nudged many businesses into a model that embraces flexibility, whether it’s to allow for caregivers to work irregular hours or letting those who struggle with the commute to work remotely or those who would rather nail five hours of work on a rainy Sunday and then go to the beach on a workday.
So, what does that mean for jobseekers?
Well, it’s a good time to ask yourself: What do I need to thrive? The answer may not be a 9am-5pm job in an office but then again, many people do crave the social aspect of a workplace.
“It’s not just extroverts vs introverts. A lot of people get energy and distraction and collaboration from being in the company of others. Humans are very social beings.”
New Atlassian global research found that since the pandemic began, 77% of Australians missed the energy of their workplace (this was us, I took a poll😊), compared with a global average of less than 50%. When it came to whether working from home was effective, 68% of Australians reported improved job satisfaction while 68% of people thought their team worked better together. Interesting huh, but there’s still a lot of work to do to create a ‘new normal’, but what is clear is that many new ways of working brought about by the pandemic are here to stay.
What’s your ultimate flexibility?
The first step is understanding what environment would work for you. If you’re a person that says ‘you know what? I’m more than happy working in an office and travelling in every day and having that structure (I relate to this form of work arrangement).
Then you’ve got your “in between-ers’ they would like a bit of both, maybe a 3/2 split 3 days in the office 2 days working from home.
Then you have your “WFH’’ only peeps, this can be a little tricky if the role you signed up for (employment contract) is an office-based role and you were allowed to WFH only because of the restrictions caused by the pandemic but the expectation is that you return to the office. Look it is always something you can negotiate with your employer about, but I think you need to be prepared to be told a return to the office is expected. Try and work with your employer as I don’t feel (from a personal viewpoint) that it is fair to demand a WFH standard when you have been working from the office before Covid.
“If you believe life’s too short to just work, ask what your perfect flexibility model is, and then ask, what kind of places offer that?”
“What kind of places offer the environment where I can be the true, best version of myself”? When you can be authentic at work, it doesn’t sap energy from you, it creates energy. You get to the end of the day and say, ‘I achieved a lot, that’s awesome’.”
Who needs your skills?
Step one is to understand what your transferrable skills are. A lot of people inadvertently think about the roles they’ve done in the past, not their skills. Step two is to ask yourself where might those skills be applicable? Then, what are the supplementary things I need to go and learn? Between LinkedIn Learning and the stuff that’s available online for free, if you have got gaps, you can go and plug those gaps quite quickly and quite cheaply.
So where would you like to work in the future? And importantly, what is your ultimate model of flexibility?
https://www.skillfinder.com.au/ shows you the most relevant courses and skills based on your professional background, current expertise, and future interest areas. Australian tech leaders Atlassian, Canva, MYOB and Xero have all contributed free courses as well as Adobe, AWS, Google, IBM, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Twitter.
As always, we’re here to offer you support and guidance and lots and lots of roles, 😊 so give us a call and read the below and check out what’s available now and up and coming!