To Commute or Not To Commute, That Is the Question

Recruiters wanting to broaden their pool for talent should be more lenient about requirements for commuting.

“When creating and discussing hybrid officing, don’t be lemmings without a purpose,” advises Mike Evers of Evers Legal. “From what I can tell, most home versus at HQ office policy decisions are being made based on what other companies are doing. Just as full-time commuting used to be the norm, now a hybrid mix is the norm.”

Evers writes that recent recruiting calls for talent have put the need to commute to a headquarters office front and center of negotiations. There is a generational shift with younger attorneys expecting companies to have more scheduling flexibility for at-home work offices or hybrid models. 

Evers notes a few more observations of the shift in ideology toward commuting: 

• There is absolutely a generational dynamic at play. The expectation of schedule flexibility is much higher among younger professionals without a history of commuting.

• Very few professionals actually want to go into a headquarters office. The generational shift has more to do with a willingness to do so.

• A willingness to commute and/or relocate for a position will absolutely increase your options as a candidate … at all levels of the law department pyramid.

• Conversely, if you are a general counsel who can embrace home officing as the default mode for work, your candidate options will increase in a tight labor market for talent. Commuting is no longer a given.

Are you interested in learning more about how commuting has impacted legal recruiting? Read more in this law.com article.