Only ‘very special’ workers will keep remote working, says world’s biggest talent company CEO

The war back to big offices is effectively over – and a new hierarchical system has emerged, says Sander van’t Noordeinde, global chief executive of Randstad, which creates jobs for around half a million workers every week.

While regular employees are being pulled back to their desks, the CEO of the world’s largest talent company says only top performers will be able to cling to their fully remote roles.

“You have to be very special to be able to claim a 100% remote job,” Van Noordeende says luck. “Increasingly that’s the story. You have to have very special technological skills or some experience.”

“The whole phenomenon of freelancing has, of course, emerged over the past decades… but it also requires special skills – good business skills or communication skills, which not everyone has.”

For everyone else, there’s no escape from at least some desk time. But unlike strict mandates from the likes of Amazon and JP Morgan, Van Noordeende doesn’t think we’ll go back to old-school 9-to-5, five days a week as usual.

Instead, he says the happy medium is here to stay: “The pendulum is starting to slow down…it seems like a balance has been found,” adding that with the exception of some banks in big cities, “it’s generally a hybrid model, about three to four days, plus some working from home.”

Research has already called this phenomenon “hybrid hierarchy.”

What Van Noordeende sees on the ground mirrors exactly what Korn Ferry predicted earlier this year: As companies increasingly work in-offices, the consulting firm predicts a “new hybrid hierarchy” in which flexibility becomes a perk reserved only for top performers.

The report explained that “the rich and the poor in 2025 will not be divided according to the economy, but rather according to talent and the extent to which the company desires them.”

Essentially, workers with scarce skills can still negotiate for fully remote or ultra-flexible setups. But at the bottom, workers with less influence – often in smaller or more commoditized roles – are more likely to be expected to show their face.

It’s not entirely new. Korn Ferry wrote in the report that the unique hybrid arrangements had historically been given “only to the most senior officers” — and while special treatment could create friction within workplaces, she added that it was no different from offering new talent higher wages than “lower-paid legacy employees.”

In some companies, flexible schedules are actually offered to high-performing employees as a reward for their good work. Meanwhile, those who work in the medium range do not get the privilege of working remotely Wall Street Journal I mentioned.

Now, with hiring slowing and wage increases stalling, flexibility is one of the few tools employers have left to attract and retain people they don’t want to lose.