We can’t all be the best.
Not everyone is hiring top talent. And that’s ok.
Because not everyone IS top talent. (And who decides what “top” means anyway?)
This weekend the Wall Street Journal published an article titled “Need to Hire Workers in a Hot Job Market? Let Them Do Some Remote Work” with the sub header “Employers offering flexible work options are hiring at a faster pace than those requiring full-time office attendance” here.
As an avid hater of reading, I love a good “saved you a click” headline. Seriously, it sums it up entirely.
This graph provides the data points
:
Those of you with a keen perception of the blatantly obvious are thinking “duh.” Absolutely nothing shocking about this. Linear regression in favor of less days in office.
Why this is notable: the narrative has been a return to work push that isn’t based in reality. Source: someone asked about this in damn near every conversation I’ve had in the last few months.
But there’s another way to look at this data: there ARE a lot of companies hiring all onsite. How are they able to do this, when virtually everyone would either rather work remote OR *have the option* to work remote whenever they damn well please?
The answer is quite simple: not everyone is “top talent”. And not everyone is hiring “top talent.”
This may seem like an incendiary statement, but hear me out before taking a flamethrower to the comments.
I’ll define my terms:
“Top Talent” – fully self-sufficient, self-motivated, fully trained, domain experts that require little to no daily management.
“Not Top Talent” – anyone who is still learning, requires assistance, hasn’t hit their peak, still developing their domain knowledge, communicates better in person, and needs someone to help keep them on track.
Anyone junior. Anyone pivoting. Anyone who needs a 2nd set of eyes or direction.
Which is literally all of us. It’s a matter to what extent.
👉Point being: every company says they want “top talent” but they don’t. They want a good hire. Which is not the same thing.
We can’t all be the best. And that’s ok. Many of us *do* need onsite interaction to level up.
Companies should use whatever mix is right to get the level of talent they need. And workers should be open to whatever amount of in person interaction makes them better, if they’re able.
Partner at Hirewell. #3 Ranked Sarcastic Commenter on LinkedIn.
