Majority Employees Miss The Office, According to Survey

According to JLL, workers across the Asia Pacific have adapted to work-from-home arrangements, but a majority of them are keen to return to the office.

An average of 68% of workers surveyed regionally worked from home at the climax of the global pandemic across the Asia Pacific. According to JLL, 61% of the same respondents working from home said they missed going to the workplace and would prefer a hybrid model mixing more flexible work arrangements in the future.

"Our employees in Malaysia [have] started to return to the office on split team basis since May 13, following the announcement of the Malaysian government on the relaxation of regulations regarding the Movement Control Order (MCO), with its main goal to reopen the national economy in a controlled manner," said JLL Malaysia country head YY Lau.

"Most of us have adapted to working from home leveraging on JLL technologies, but most of our employees still find the lack of human interactions and other challenges such as distractions from their family members and work facilities," Lau added.

"Employees across the Asia Pacific have successfully transitioned to remote working, but our interactions also suggest that many now crave the office environment's cultural and human experience. It is becoming clearer that the office is here to stay. Still, greater acceptance of remote working will force a new workplace model for many corporations regionally," said JLL Asia Pacific CEO Anthony Couse.

The office space will stay relevant for a foreseeable future.

"Offices will continue to play a central role in defining company culture, creating a shared purpose, and meeting employee needs for personal and professional fulfilment. However, Covid-19 will impact how the office looks and feels, as hybrid models comprising flexible work arrangements become mainstream," said JLL Asia Pacific chief research officer Roddy Allan.

JLL's new Asia Pacific report Home and away: the new hybrid workplace? discusses that employees consistently thought while they appreciate the freedom of working from home, they yearn for human interaction and face-to-face collaboration that working in a professional office environment provides.

The report is based on the opinions of 1,500 workers from five countries across the Asia Pacific. Respondents were quizzed about the effects of long periods of remote work, access to technology, and which changes in professional behaviour will become permanent.

The future of the workplace

Based on the report, respondents think that employers have a duty to encourage this sense of optimism, whether their teams are working from home or in the office, and as businesses, improve performance and productivity wherever their employees are located. Crucial considerations for employers examining a hybrid model include:

Office space is here to stay: Greater acceptance of remote working will drive towards a more distributed and diverse workforce, but this will come with its difficulties on productivity and efficiency. Office space will stay relevant, in most situations, as the optimal working environment.
Offices will be reimagined as social hubs: The office provides a culture that can't be replicated via remote working and works as a social hub for employees to connect on common goals, purpose and vision. Repurposed or redesigned work areas will be needed to provide infrastructure for collaboration among the split teams of remote and on-site staff.
The future footprint will facilitate choices and flexibility: Work from home saw many employees enjoy greater flexibility and authority on their personal and professional lives. Companies will have to redefine their real estate footprint, leveraging distributed and liquid spaces. Home offices, co-working places, satellite offices and the office headquarters will all have to co-exist. This will lead to a genuinely hybrid office model.

The report showed that millennials said they missed the office more than other age groups at 66% and highlighted the office experience's benefits: human interactions, professional environment, and place for focused work.

Moreover, 81% of millennials strongly agreed that they felt technology ready, and 52% said they were more productive working from home. But, some could not afford accommodation with space and amenities necessary for prosperous home-working.

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Source: The Edge Markets