How offering remote working increases your chances of hiring

Introduction

As the industry moves out of the post-COVID fully-remote state, many companies are now rethinking their remote policies. In this article, we dive into the preference data from 6,000 position listings and 68,000 candidate profiles to help companies understand the current state of the remote market and how offering (or not offering) remote work will impact your hiring.

The key findings were:

• 67% of candidates are considering fully remote work, but only 16% of positions offer this

• Since December 2022 the percentage of positions offering fully remote has fallen by half

• Companies that offer fully remote positions on average see more views, applications, successful conversations, and a higher response rate to messages

What is the current remote landscape?

We compared what working arrangements are currently on offer from companies and how this differs from the demand from candidates.

Candidates are more flexible with their preferences

On cord, positions and candidate profiles can list multiple remote working options or preferences from on-site, hybrid or remote.

Companies are more specific about their requirements than candidates, with only 5% of positions listed with all three working arrangements available, compared to 1/3 of candidate profiles listing all three options.

There is a shortage of remote positions compared to demand

Looking at the entire company landscape and comparing this to candidate preferences, there's a large disparity between what candidates are looking for and what’s on offer on the market.

67% of candidates list fully remote working as a preference, however just 16% of positions are currently offered as fully remote.

This gap has been increasing

In Dec 2022 there were twice as many fully remote positions advertised, with 34% of positions listed as remote in comparison to 17% today.

During that period, demand for remote working has fallen slightly by candidates, but not to the same extent, meaning this gap between supply and demand has widened.

Smaller companies are more likely to offer remote work

Looking into the data split by company size there is a trend that remote working is more common with companies under 500 employees and sharply decreases in 500+ companies.

Summary

There now exists a major disparity between the number of remote positions and the number of people considering remote roles, meaning talent teams can gain a significant advantage over competitors by offering fully remote work.

Remote companies have more hiring success

We compared the impact of working preferences on the outcomes of positions advertised in the last 2 months, to reveal that fully remote positions perform better than hybrid or on-site.

More applications

Remote positions received 44% more applications per position compared with Hybrid and Onsite.

Higher sourcing response rate

Sourcing messages sent about Remote and Hybrid positions have a higher candidate acceptance rate.

More successful conversations

Remote positions have twice as many successful conversations compared to Onsite, and 24% more than Hybrid

Increased visibility

Remote positions received 37% higher views on their positions and were nearly twice as likely to be favourited by candidates than Hybrid and Onsite positions

Summary

Fully remote positions give you more visibility, are more favourable with candidates, and result in better results with more applications and conversations with candidates in your pipeline. Offering remote work will likely increase your chances of hiring success.

Conclusion

There is a disparity in the market between what candidates are looking for in fully remote working and what is on offer from companies. This disparity has increased over the last year, with the number of remote positions available decreasing by 50%.

Hiring metrics show that offering remote working significantly improves every aspect of candidate attraction.

If you’re looking to stand out from your competitors and increase your chances of hiring success, offering fully remote work is a great way to achieve this.