Most workers in Singapore want to see flexible or hybrid working continue even after the Covid-19 pandemic ends.
This number is even higher than the global average of 73% as 82% of surveyed Singaporean employees want flexible remote work conditions to stay.
Microsoft recently carried out a Work Trends study of more than 30,000 people in 31 countries including Singapore. Of the 1,002 workers surveyed in Singapore, more than 82% of workers in Singapore want flexible remote work options to stay, but 66% also crave more in-person time with their teams.
“As businesses adapt to disruptive change, business leaders must recognize that long-held assumptions no longer hold true with their employees,” says Joanna Lim, Modern Work and Security Business Group Lead at Microsoft Singapore. “They must now make choices that will impact their organizations for years to come. Business leaders now need to dig deeper to think about shaping their culture to attract and retain talent, foster collaboration and innovation, and deliver on the extreme flexibility that employees need.”
But the shift to WFH has brought an imbalance to the work-life balance with 58% of employees saying that they felt more overworked and exhausted (49%). 20% even said that their employers didn’t seem to care if they had any work-life balance or not.
Younger workers especially are struggling to find happiness in this new normal with 70% saying they are merely surviving or flat-out struggling. Lim says that these Gen Z-ers are at risk and need to be re-energised.
Microsoft says that the Work Trend Index report indicates that business leaders in Singapore should resist the urge to see hybrid work like business as usual. Instead, they should lead with empathy, instil flexibility, and humanise work for employees.
Unfortunately, management seems to be out of touch with the views of their workers. The Microsoft study showed that 51% of leaders in Singapore say they are thriving right now, but only 27% of their employees would say the same.
According to Lim, some other top hybrid work trends stemming from the results of the study, that Singaporean business leaders need to know are:
- Flexible work is here to stay: More than 82% of workers in Singapore want flexible remote work options to stay, but 66% are also craving more in-person time with their teams.
- Business leaders in Singapore are also recognizing the workplace evolution: 62% of business leaders are more likely to redesign office space for hybrid work.
- People are more likely to move now they can work remotely: 50% of remote workers in Australia and New Zealand are likely to move to a new location because they can now work remotely.
- More likely to change professional paths: 47% of workers in Asia are likely to consider changing employers and 56% are likely to consider a career change. However, in Japan, this number is much lower, with only 38% of workers likely to consider changing employers within the year.
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Text by: Ken Wong/Hardware Zone