Hybrid Work Opportunities in Regional Victoria Research

Understanding Hybrid Work Opportunities in Regional Victoria

It’s a fact: hybrid work is now an attraction and retention issue for employers across sectors and industries. While many have made it work, not all are optimising these work practices. 

The challenges are manifold – from structure and support for leaders, to employee disconnection and isolation, negative cultural impacts, disparity of digital capabilities, inequity between employees, inconsistent practices, and more.

Regional Development Australia Melbourne engaged Swinburne Edge to produce original research to identify and understand the opportunities that hybrid work has provided to regional workers and employers in Victoria.

The research provides:

• insights on shifting worker demographics and trends

• an understanding of the different approaches, learning and early successes of organisations who have adopted hybrid work practices in regional Victoria

• specific ways that regional employers can capitalise on hybrid work. 
  

Key results

Shifting talent demographics

Most white-collar workers moving to regional Victoria are between the ages of 30 and 44. Plus, more workers are moving from metro Melbourne to regional Victoria than the other way around – a consistent trend since COVID. As a result, more professionals, including workers from the finance, insurance, scientific and technical services sectors, are now living in regional Victoria.

Regional employers have reported an increase in the quantity and quality of job candidates since COVID. This is due to talent moving to the regions, as well as the fact that more cross-regional candidates are applying for roles in their organisations. 

The importance of flexibility

If regional employers are more open to flexibility, they can increase their likelihood of attracting cross-regional talent, to address talent shortages and to access a broader and more diverse talent pool. When employers mandate days in the office, they limit their talent pool to those who live within a commutable distance. 

Regional employers, in some locations, are now also competing with metropolitan-based organisations, who are employing regional talent and may offer higher salaries as well as flexibility. Therefore, the degree of flexibility offered by regional employers is also important to attract and retain local talent.

Diversity and inclusion opportunities

Hybrid work has resulted in location-based flexibility and greater time flexibility. Consequently, parents can more easily balance work-life needs and can be more present and actively involved in child-raising. They may also be able to re-enter the workforce and take career progression opportunities, such as full-time roles, because of this flexibility that may otherwise not exist.

A new approach to culture, connection and learning

In a remote or hybrid working environment, fostering culture, connection and informal learning needs to be more intentional and deliberate. Leaders need to see flexibility as a positive resource to motivate, improve engagement and trust employees to work autonomously. 

Active communication across both physical and digital channels is key and expectations about the parameters of flexible working arrangements need to be clear to avoid ambiguity. 

Employers need to: 

• build leadership capability to lead hybrid or remote first teams 

• develop digital capability across the organisation to improve engagement, efficiency and team effectiveness 

• utilise dormant capability of existing technology. 

Collecting and analysing data to measure, learn and evolve hybrid work practices is valuable.