Two thirds (62%) of the global population are quite literally working from anywhere, according to a new Polycom, Inc. survey that explores the future of work and the impact technology is having on both employee behavior and workplace culture.
The study highlights that being able to work from anywhere is believed to boost performance with 98% of all respondents believing that anywhere working has a positive impact on productivity. Findings also showed that 91% of respondents believe video collaboration helps improve workplace relationships and teamwork
These results suggest that flexible workplace success is about providing the right environment that allows individuals and teams to work together productively to deliver great results.
“With the build of high speed broadband networks across Asia Pacific, collaboration technology can now give people the freedom to work the way they want, regardless of where they are,” explains Mei Lin Low, Director, APAC Solutions Marketing, Polycom.
“Flexible working is becoming business-normal; employees expect it and employers need to establish flexible working policies to attract and retain their best talent. Regardless of whether you are working in Australia or China, a millennial or baby boomer, the findings show that people have the same expectations when it comes to work – they want location liberation and the ability to work and collaborate in a very human way that gets the job done.”
Staying socially connected with video technology
Surprisingly, it was technology-savvy millennials who were most concerned about the correlation between being physically present at work and being recognized as getting the job done.
Approximately 62% of millennials (18-30 year olds) were concerned that they would not be perceived as hard-working if they were not in the office.
Findings also showed that having face time with colleagues over video helped maintain important social interaction that can sometimes be lacking for remote-based workers. An overwhelming 91% of respondents said video collaboration helped them get to know their co-workers better.
Flexible working habits in Asia Pacific
In Asia Pacific (APAC), more than 10,000 respondents participated from five countries: Singapore, Australia, China, India, and Japan. Findings showed that almost 60% of workers in Singapore, Australia, and India are working flexibly on a frequent basis.
In China, 85% of people surveyed said their company offered flexible working arrangements with 87% stating they work with a colleague located in a different office. Japan was the only country that deviates from the global anywhere working trend.
A closer look at Singapore
When it comes to Singapore, only 50% of respondents are working flexibly, however 75% of those working from anywhere have seen a significant improvement in their work life balance.
The results clearly indicated that consistency matters to workers in Singapore as 67% said they’d feel more confident working flexibly if they knew that the same policy was applicable to everyone across the company. Ensuring a fair, equal policy for all employees could be the way of getting more Singaporeans to join in the global trend.
From a lifestyle point of view, taking care of children (37%) and having more time to exercise (31%) are top reasons people like to have the option to work anywhere in Singapore. This comes as no surprise, given that long working hours are often cited as being a barrier to work/life balance in the city state, despite solid national initiatives to encourage a more family-friendly work culture.
Toh Hwee Tin, Director of NTUC’s Women and Family Unit said that while flexi-work arrangements were offered by many companies, these were mostly informal and not supported with policies or embedded in company’s culture.
“The demographics of our workforce in Singapore comprising working parents, millennials and baby boomers, is ever changing and similarly, their working requirements,” said Toh.
“To encourage a family-friendly work culture, the responsibility shouldn’t just lie with the human resource department but it should be championed by the company’s leadership and embraced company-wide. With proper flexible working policies in place, employees can strike a balance in their lives and business continuity measures can also be assured, particularly in times of crisis such as the Zika scare we faced recently in Singapore.”
Closer with collaboration technologies
Findings also revealed the significant impact that technology is having on anywhere working.
A majority (97%) of APAC respondents believed collaboration technologies were important in bringing colleagues closer together, to build relationships and overcome flexible working challenges. Perhaps understandable given the diverse cultural and language differences within Asia Pacific.
For 97% of respondents in Singapore, technology is an important part of their everyday routines, using collaboration solutions to communicate with colleagues and stakeholders, regardless of whether they’re working remotely or not.
C-level executives in Singapore, on the other hand, are more concerned with deploying the right technology to enable anywhere working; 70% of CXOs believe that with the right tools, flexible working challenges will be overcome.
Commenting on the growth in flexible working within Asia Pacific, Frost & Sullivan research analyst Zi Ning Chong said, “Across the region, governments and businesses are creating disruptive change to remain competitive in the digital era. The adoption of modern and flexible work styles is important in current working environment.
“Transformational technologies like video collaboration are changing the way we work and live, impacting everything from workspace design, to workflow and office culture. The growth in flexible working and geographically distributed workforces mean that businesses will need to find ways to empower employees with vastly different experiences and relationships with technology, ensuring they can collaborate effectively to drive the productivity.