
INSIGHTS
At Avenir, our hypothesis has always been that recruiting remote and hybrid roles was more efficient and effective than on-site roles. But is that actually true and what’s the data behind our perceptions? We dug into our recent search data to understand the disparities in the hiring processes for remote, hybrid, and in-person roles.
Candidates are less interested in on-site roles, requiring higher volume marketing efforts
For remote and hybrid positions on average, Avenir must market a role to ~200 candidates to make a hire, whereas in-person roles demand a higher volume of candidates, typically ~300 – a 50% increase in the number of potential candidates required for successful hires. Interestingly, we don’t see significant differences between hybrid and fully remote.
Lower response rates by potential candidates to Avenir’s outreach explain the need for higher volume outreach for on-site roles, i.e. much fewer candidates are interested in ons-site roles. Remote and hybrid roles boast a 15% overall higher response rate and 8% higher positive response rate as compared to on-site positions. Of course this is not surprising, given the trends toward remote and hybrid work accelerated by the pandemic.
What surprised us was similar conversion rates throughout the interview process for in-person, hybrid and remote roles (e.g., first round candidates progressing to final round interviews and accepting offers). This consistency suggests that once the right candidates are engaged, factors such as quality of interviews, cultural fit, compensation, etc. are more important than the location of the role.
Conclusion
So what does that mean? While the simple takeaway is that remote and hybrid roles are faster to recruit, that conclusion is too simplistic. Rather, remote and hybrid roles increase the supply of candidates. In job placements where the TAM is more limited, this allows you additional optionality to emphasize one of the 3 main trade-offs in any search - speed to hire, compensation, and experience (e.g. you can be more stringent on experience requirements or hold firmer to your budget). For businesses and roles that necessitate on-site work, consider shifting from on-site to hybrid, which Avenir’s data shows has all the recruiting benefits of remote roles from a TAM perspective.
Have questions or need talent acquisition help? Contact us at recruiting@avenirtalent.com