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More Asian Employees Now Want Flexibility; Only 7% Want a Completely Onsite Work Arrangement

  • Most Asian respondents
    prefer a hybrid work arrangement, with two or three days of working from home
    every week
  • Good relationships with colleagues,
    superiors as well as financial compensation are now top factors for job
    preferences
  • Issues pertaining to environmental
    responsibility as well as diversity and inclusion are now more important to Asian
    workers

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 29 April
2021 – A new report based on the study Decoding
Global Ways of Working
states that only 7 per cent of Asia’s workforce now
want to commit to a completely onsite work arrangement. A majority of them have
expressed a desire for flexibility in where their work gets done. A total of 66,624 respondents in Asia —
out of 209,000 participants across 190 countries — took part in the study.


 


Most
of the Asian respondents prefer to work two to three days remotely every week,
with two exceptions. Forty-nine per cent of the respondents in the Philippines
prefer to work all five days completely remote. Reasons could be related to the
increasing rate of COVID-19 infection, worsening traffic situation pre-COVID
lockdown and the inadequate public transportation system. On the other hand, only
9 per cent of the respondents in Hong Kong are keen on a completely remote
arrangement — this is likely due to their housing situation, where their houses
are not ideal for a home office.


 


The
study is conducted in partnership with SEEK Asia (The parent company of
JobStreet), Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and The Network. It is the second release
in a series of publications focusing on the pandemic’s impact on worker
preferences and expectations. The data gathered for Decoding Global Ways of
Working
provides insights into worker preferences by gender, age, education
level, level of digital skill, and position in the job hierarchy.


 


Financial
compensation now a key near-term benefit when it comes to job preferences


Apart
from work location and work practices, the survey also identified some shifts
in what people value at work. Good relationships with their colleagues,
followed by financial compensation in the form of salaries and bonuses, are what
Asian employees consider when it comes to staying in their current jobs. In
2020, good relationships with their superiors became the third most important near-term
benefit. Employer’s financial stability, career development, learning and
skills training, while still important considerations, now rank lower when it
comes to weightage.


 


New
worker attitudes on diversity and the environment


Racial
and environmental issues have gained international spotlight in 2020. A
majority of Asian workers now expect their employers to champion environmental
responsibility as well as diversity and inclusion.


 


Seventy-nine
per cent of respondents indicated that the issue of employers’ environmental
responsibility has become more important to them. This sentiment is especially
strong amongst workers in Indonesia (85%), the Philippines (83%) and Malaysia
(80%). Roughly seven in ten respondents now value diversity and inclusion in
the workplace. Social issues resonate strongly with workers in Thailand (91%),
the Philippines (85%) and Malaysia (83%).


 


Close
to 60 per cent of respondents said that they would exclude companies that do
not match their beliefs in environmental responsibility when searching for a
job — Malaysia (65%), Indonesia (64%) and the Philippines (59%). For diversity
and inclusion, the number is 57 per cent — Hong Kong (67%), Malaysia (66%) and
Thailand (63%). 


 


Increased reliance for digital tools


The impact of the pandemic goes well beyond
the dimension of where work gets done, social issues attitudes and the monetary
benefits. The way how people collaborate, the tools they use and their
well-being have also been affected. One positive change is people’s increased
reliance and facility with using digital tools for their job roles. This
improved use of digital tools during the pandemic was widely noted by the
countries such as Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia.


 


Well-being of workers, however, is on severe
decline. Employees from Hong Kong and Indonesia experienced a negative change
in their well-being, especially those in physical or social jobs, where they
had to continue working in person.


 


“COVID-19
has changed the world, down to the micro level. Workers around the world have
begun re-evaluating their work priorities,” says Peter Bithos, Chief
Executive Officer, SEEK Asia. “Accordingly,
employers must too change their work policies in order to remain attractive to
top talents. In today’s digital world, they must be technology champions, ensuring
convenient access to collaboration tools and the deployment of robust infrastructure
in both the office and at home. Secondly, they must make employee well-being, work-life
balance, mentorship and career development a key part of their companies’ core.
Finally, they need to be a role model to their employees, with their corporate
social responsibility efforts focusing on tackling important social and/or
environmental issues.”


 


For
full reports, please visit: http://bit.ly/DecodingGlobalTalentReport2.


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