A carryover from the pandemic, WFH has become a way of life for a small number of employees in CNY. But employers aren’t as willing to go WFH
By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
Of course, hands-on employment requires employees to show up in person at the worksite. But the pandemic helped underscore the ability of many employers to allow data- and technology-driven roles to be filled by employees working from home.
In fact, work-from-home has become a filter criterion for job seekers.
But that does not mean that WFH is as popular with employers.
The most recent US Census Bureau data states that “in 2022, 13.1% of Onondaga County’s working population aged 16 and older stated ‘worked from home’ as their means of transportation to work.” said Karen Knapik-Scalzo, analyst with the New York State Department of Labor Division of Research & Statistics in Syracuse.
That’s not very many.
Joanne Rauch, president of CR Fletcher, said that more onsite and hybrid roles are available versus completely WFH, depending on the industry.
“The industries we see most flexible are professional services, including public accounting, financial services, advertising agencies, insurance, technology and some law firms,” Rauch said. “The least flexible are manufacturing, construction, nonprofit and healthcare.”
Suzanne Benderski, chief of staff at CTS in Liverpool, has seen more employers requiring employees to return to working on site. However, roles such as customer service and call center staff “are sometimes available as work-from-home roles,” she said. “Candidates that are looking for work are still showing a strong preference for remote opportunities.”
Stephanie Vavonese, founder and executive recruiter with SMV Recruiting, LLC in Syracuse, believes that many companies feel that fully remote work has caused them to lose their company culture.
“A number of manufacturers and companies in Syracuse are doing some hybrid roles, but we have seen a clear shift back to in-person positions,” she said. “However, this has proved challenging for employers, because it has significantly limited their pool of candidates because the mind shift of candidates has not shifted and now hiring managers are only able to pull from local talent or be forced to pay relocation.
“Being in person, most companies feel is most important for recent graduates so they can be mentored and learn from being around other like-minded established professionals.”
The increase in WFH popularity has also spurred more employers to provide hybrid opportunities, which allow workers to spend some of their working time at home and some in the office.
“There are definitely plenty of people looking for work-from-home and hybrid,” said Elvis Mehmedovic, franchise owner of Express Employment in Syracuse. “In Central New York, it’s a little bit of a battle. Some are just looking for flexibility, which has always been around for family and childcare. But now we call it ‘work-from-home’ and ‘hybrid.’ During the pandemic, people got a taste of it and liked it.”
He said that employers in the tech sector widely offer WFH and hybrid arrangements and many small businesses accommodate them. Whether an employer chooses to provide WFH as an option boils down to trust.
WFH has become so popular at Excellus BlueCross BlueShield that it’s become part of the company culture, according to Tim Lippincott, vice president of talent management, a department at Excellus. He said that although during the pandemic, pivoting to WFH was mandatory, since 2021, Excellus has decided to offer a hybrid work option where possible.
“We centered our decision on that we trust our employees on working where they see fit and what works best for them,” Lippincott said.
About 90% of employees able to work in a hybrid arrangement for Excellus do so. Lippincott said that they work out their schedule with their managers to ensure they can be in the office as needed. Excellus also provides optional events for networking, such as a tailgating party celebrating the Super Bowl, food truck rodeos and more.
“We do these pop-up events because employees need to connect,” Lippincott said. “That employee connection is important to our culture.”
Excellus has also invested in MS Teams and Zoom to help enable connectivity among work-from-home and hybrid employees. Lippincott said that the learning curve for this technology was pretty easy.
“Through our different communication channels, we let them know what collaboration needs to look like in the home, office or asynchronous learning environment,” Lippincott said. “We’re still able to connect.”
Employee surveys relate that many rate Excellus highly in the category of “I have significant higher wellbeing because of my employer” and Lippincott believes that the hybrid and work-from- home arrangements play a vital role in this rating.
