LinkedIn news roundup: Flexibility, ‘think week’, and recruitment

LinkedIn is a great source for HR news. This week we saw a range of topics, from flexible working, ‘think week’, how to deal with 2023 predictions, and why recruitment should be left out of HR.

End of the traditional work week

Belinda Morgan shared an ABC News article to LinkedIn this week, discussing whether the nine-to-five work day is obsolete with the rise in flexible working.

ABC News referenced an October study by SmartCompany, which found that half of Australian workers would quit before returning to full-time onsite work. Millennials were even more adamant, with 61 per cent saying the same.

Bringing the working week down to four days has been discussed for some time. As Karin Sanders, professor in human resource management and organisational psychology at the UNSW Business School, said to HR Leader that implementing a four-day week could see improved productivity and reduced burnout.

“If people are not feeling well, close to burnout, they make mistakes. There’s a difference in doing your job and doing it 110 per cent … If we were to work for four days we could get more from workers and have less turnaround in people leaving workplaces due to burnout,” said Professor Sanders.

As noted in the ABC News article, the University of Sydney’s Body, Heart and Mind Business Research Group’s management researcher, Stefan Volk, believes that reducing hours would be more effective than a four-day week.

“I am actually against a four-day working week and suggest we should maintain five days but reduce the daily working time so people only work during their most effective hours, depending on their circadian predisposition,” said Mr Volk.

With plenty of companies already trialling four-day working weeks, change could be on the horizon.

‘Think week’

As discussed by Amantha Imber on her How I Work podcast, a ‘think week’ may be beneficial to your wellbeing and productivity.

Ms Imber shared an article to LinkedIn from The Sydney Morning Herald, which outlined a think week as alone time used to prepare for the year while reflecting on the year that’s gone by.

“It can be really useful to set aside time to deliberately stop and ask yourself those big open-ended questions,” said Ms Imber.

“Rather than just being on the treadmill and operating on default without questioning anything and [ending] up five years into a career that we are not finding any joy in.

“Having that space away from the distraction of emails and meetings and reacting to people, I have bursts of writing and thinking, and it becomes almost effortless,” she added.

Others shared their thoughts in the comments of the LinkedIn post. David Eastham commented: “Agree with this so much – and have unknowingly been having think weeks for most of my career. For me, one of the real key elements is ensuring organisations respect a staff members [sic] time off and that as a staff member you know you’re not coming back to a mess.”

How to navigate 2023 predictions

MyHRfuture flagged up its resource for putting 2023 “predictions into practice”. The six themes as listed by myHRfuture are:

• Enhancing the employee experience
• Creating a data-driven HR function
• Upskilling HR
• Unlocking the power of diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Building a skills-based organisation
• Fostering mental health and wellbeing at work

These six areas could see increased importance in 2023 and beyond. Visit myHRfuture to read the full insights.

Is it time to leave HR out of recruitment?

SmartRecruiters’ sales and growth leader Rich Lewis-Jones shared a Fast Company article to LinkedIn this week, arguing that talent acquisition shouldn’t be HR’s responsibility.

Mr Lewis-Jones described the piece as “a thought-provoking article that I am sure will ruffle some feathers”, as the reasons made for why it’s HR’s responsibility range from “it’s the way it’s always been done” to “it’s a shortcut”.

The author of the Fast Company article, Carol Schultz, argued: “In my many years of research and working directly with human resources officers, 98 per cent had zero experience in recruiting. And the other 2 per cent had only a minimal amount of recruiting experience, either with recruitment agencies or corporate recruiting, but not enough to have mastered ‘the art of the search’.”

With so many HR professionals having no experience in recruitment, it may be time for a change of responsibility. Alternatively, employers may benefit by providing their HR workers with adequate recruitment training.

Rachel Hollomon commented on the LinkedIn post: “If businesses are afraid to adapt and change and we rely on same old processes to work with, they can expect same old in terms of results.”