How to: Work a Two Hour Day | Recruitment Consultancy Tips

Could you be working for just two hours a day in the near future? With smart workflows, it is becoming an increasingly realistic option for some.

Question: If you could pick exactly how much time you spent at your job, what would you choose?

Strange as it may seem, this question may be one that shapes your daily life in the not-too-distant future. Improvements to business infrastructure, planning, connectivity and – yes – automation – could remove an enormous manual workload in the coming years. A lot of existing administrative, data processing, and sorting tasks are undertaken by systems and not people.

A change in our work-life culture

But note that we are not talking about cutting our productivity. In this hypothetical future scenario, your output would remain at your current rates. Only your hours worked would be reduced.

So: what would you choose – The usual eight hours? More? Or less?

We tend to paint a rather dystopian view of the future, but a decidedly utopian re-calibration of our work-life balance may be just around the corner. Maintaining existing output with a massively reduced time cost opens up a world of possibilities. It would become easier for businesses to safeguard their own future survival. It could open the door to accelerated growth, and untold quality-of-life improvements.

Why Agile Recruitment is the right fit for the modern world

The potential upside is enormous. But just how likely is any of this, really?

The answer is that the transformation of work is already underway. At eBoss, we perhaps first became conscious of this change when conducting research for one of our case studies. The way our client had deployed our smart search functionality had helped them to cut their database search times by about 80 per cent.

If a consultant usually allocates a full working day to their searches, that means they are finishing within two hours. This started us thinking: which other processes and workflows can be dramatically reduced with smarter working and automation?

The answer is that there are very few areas of enterprise that would not benefit from this form of automated efficiency. From planning and task allocation to reporting and targeting, it is known as agile working.

Now, agile workplaces are by no means new. What has changed is that the technology which enables agile working has finally reached a point of becoming commonplace.

When a technology matures from being “innovative” to “commonplace”, the late adopters invariably get left behind and typically struggle to remain viable for too long. At this point, only the early adopters remain and the new, efficient model becomes the updated industry standard.

So, there is an element of both carrot and stick in this narrative. The good news is that agile recruitment is still in the early adopter phase. And there are social benefits as well as economic ones…

Why automation could be a tool for the democratisation of work

Improving productivity and output is undoubtedly great news from a business point-of-view. But there a several reasons why agile working may be more suitable to the modern world of working than traditional methods.

We might like to imagine a two-hour working day as a means of freeing up more leisure time. But the truth may be a bit more practical – and less glamorous – than that.

Social and economic disruptions (such as those caused by the coronavirus pandemic) have dramatically reshaped our working lives in a short period of time. Recovery from this will take months, or even years. It is no surprise that many commentators talk about a “new normal” for our post-pandemic careers.

It may be the case that aspiring recruitment professionals in coming years will have to start up for themselves as a sort of “side-hustle”. Maybe they are working a lower-paid but consistent job elsewhere. Perhaps they have to spend large portions of the day caring for children, elderly relatives, or helping in the community.

Agile work and automation tools help those with existing time commitments to excel in careers where they have set their sights.

Accessibility: making it easier than you think

Perhaps the most important aspect is the accessibility factor. Automations and smart workflows are no longer the privilege of larger firms and multinationals. Innovators like eBoss have been conscious in bringing high-end technology down in price: making it accessible to all. but how?

Most of us are entirely comfortable with the concept of Software as a Service (SaaS). But we don’t necessarily stop to think about the benefits it affords us in terms of agility and growth. At one time, your enterprise software probably arrived in a box. It would have cost several hundred pounds up-front, provided you with a single account, and required you to re-purchase the product once it became outdated.

Nowadays, most businesses run on SaaS, and it is deployed via cloud networks. You don’t even need a physical server to run a secure, reliable business. But the great democratising factor in all of this is the significantly lower cost barrier to entry.

Would a young and aspiring entrepreneur set up their own bedroom recruitment enterprise if up-front costs totaled several thousands pounds? Those with existing financial backing might. Those with time to work long days, squeezing every drop of value from their software might, also. But high costs would lock every other young hopeful out of the industry.

eBoss has been developing products which disrupt the way the market was operating. We have ensured that we provide the most cost-effective applicant tracking system and database on the market. We innovated faster workflows, better searches, and intelligent lead generation. And we ensure that every pound you invest in our product is returned many times over in profitability.

We could build the future of recruitment together – won’t you join us?