Employees today value greater autonomy over their work and schedule, compared with the idea of working at home permanently.
This is one of several insights found in the latest Chief of Staff Asia research paper, on remote working. Navigating Remote and Hybrid Work Boundaries in Southeast Asia is available now for subscriber download here.
This year, US-based IT software company Ivanti released their Everywhere Work Report showing that 27% of respondents would rather work on-site full-time than in a hybrid setup with a schedule controlled by their employer (3%). The highest proportion of respondents (44%) said that they prefer a hybrid setup with an employee-controlled schedule, compared with 27% who prefer to work completely remotely.
This is corroborated by ADP’s People at Work 2023 overview, which concluded that providing employees with greater control yields greater job satisfaction and dedication.
According to Yvonne Teo, ADP’s Vice President of HR in the Asia-Pacific region, this leaning towards hybrid working also shows how Southeast Asians continue to value sociability alongside workplace autonomy.
“In Singapore, there is still an emphasis on maintaining a balance between fostering social connections physically in the workplace and providing flexibility to workers,” she says.
In addition, workers may be conscious of ‘in-person bias’, where employers may conflate performance with physical presence. Being able to show up in the office on their own terms allows them to demonstrate their work productivity and engage in in-person collaboration and work relationships, while still maximising the flexibility of hybrid work.
Teo also underscores the importance of HR doing its part to address any this bias, especially for teams with fully remote members. She emphasises that it is a feeling of being under-valued that affects workers’ productivity, and not the work setup itself.
As employers address the preference for work autonomy and feeling valued, they can anticipate a greater sense of dedication, and therefore productivity, from their workers.
