Founder Spotlight: Jamie McLaughlin

Welcome to Founder Spotlight, where the trio that makes up Monday Talent’s founders answer some of the most sought-after questions for employers and their employees.  

As we brave a post-COVID world (finally!), employers and employees are finding themselves in uncharted territory when it comes to the rules of where to work. After nearly two years of forcefully having to learn how to be productive from home, some companies are going back to enforcing “in-office” hours, while others have decided to go fully remote. As an employer, you may find you are in a uniquely difficult position: how do you balance your employees’ needs and concerns with the company’s bottom line? How can you be supportive, while also fostering maximum productivity for your company's greatest asset? Monday Talent’s CEO & Founder, Jamie McLaughlin, explains.

In a post-COVID world, how can you be a supportive employer while supporting what the best environment is for getting the job done? 

Jamie’s Take:

I can talk both from what I see and what we do, here at Monday Talent. Bottom line: there is no right or wrong answer.

From an industry perspective, generally speaking, employees want flexibility and always have, even before working from home became normalized. Companies that insist on being in the office Monday-Friday, 9-5 will struggle to attract and retain staff; no matter what they do, or what their brand name is.

But there’s also another very real truth: Depending on what your business does, it may be important, even essential, for teams to collaborate in real life. There is no ‘one-size-fits-all' policy anymore. But, allowing staff to pick and choose the days they come in, with some sort of minimum days required (say two per week) seems to be a good place to start.

What we have found both in the market and with our own staff is that they love to be together, particularly when they can decide on what the terms of that looks like.

We polled the Monday Talent staff to see what they wanted to do post-COVID and took that feedback and applied it. Fortunately, we are still small enough to be able to hear any and all opinions. Most importantly we are agile enough to create a bespoke return-to-office plan if needed for individuals. 

I believe the most innovative and flexible companies will be the most successful going forward in terms of supporting and retaining talent. 

So where do I personally sit? I’m totally on the fence when it comes to the WFH vs WFO debate. What I know is that you have to do what’s best for your business and yourself. That said, propinquity is never going away. People who show up and spend real time with decision-makers will have a better career - there is no debate there.