Singapore employees want to continue with remote work, Microsoft study says

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 per cent as 82 per cent 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 per cent of workers in Singapore want flexible remote work options to stay, but 66 per cent also crave more in-person time with their teams.

Joanna Lim, Modern Work and Security Business Group Lead, Microsoft Singapore said:

As businesses adapt to disruptive change, business leaders must recognise that long-held assumptions no longer hold true with their employees. They must now make choices that will impact their organisations for years to come.

[[nid:525387]]

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 WFM has brought an imbalance to the work-life balance with 58 per cent of employees saying that they felt more overworked and exhausted ( 49 per cent ).

20 per cent 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 per cent 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.

Management is out of touch

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 per cent of leaders in Singapore say they are thriving right now, but only 27 per cent 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 per cent of workers in Singapore want flexible remote work options to stay, but 66 per cent are also craving more in-person time with their teams.

• Business leaders in Singapore are also recognising the workplace evolution: 62 per cent 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 per cent 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 per cent of workers in Asia are likely to consider changing employers and 56 per cent are likely to consider a career change. However, in Japan, this number is much lower, with only 38 per cent of workers likely to consider changing employers within the year.