As Asia primes itself to become the most connected market with more than half of all mobile connections originating from the region by 2021, organizations must rethink how they empower their workforce to maximise their potential, especially when a majority of employees, particularly in Singapore, do not feel empowered for the digital age.
According to Microsoft’s Asia Workplace 2020 study, while 62% of Singapore respondents consider themselves to be mobile workers and spend at least 20% of their time working outside of their offices, 63% agree that their employers are not doing enough to empower them for the digital age. In addition, only 26% of respondents agree that their organization is committed at a leadership level to ensure every employee is included in closing the digital skills gaps within the workforce.
The study, which covered close to 4,200 working professionals from 14 Asian markets, aimed to make sense of changing employee behaviors and gaps in the workplace regarding productivity and flexi-work arrangements. 307 respondents hailed from Singapore.
An earlier version of the study conducted in 2015 found that 39 out of 100 respondents in Singapore were ready for working on the go should organizations have proper policies supporting such an environment. This year, 44 out of 100 respondents felt so, indicating that organisations in the market are slightly more equipped, although more can be done to move the needle.
But beyond factors such as people, place and technology, the rise of the 4th industrial revolution has also accelerated the pace of transformation.
A recent Microsoft Asia Digital Transformation Study conducted in late 2016 found that ‘Empowering Employees’ is the number three digital transformation priority among Singapore’s business leaders. On the other hand, lack of a digitally skilled workforce was the number one barrier in their digital transformation journey.
Structural challenges need to be addressed
While mobile professionals appear to be embracing flexi-work today, organizations should look at new workplace practices, especially with the impeding influx of digital natives (born after 2000) entering the workforce for the first time.
Majority of the respondents (80%) value work-life integration today, where the boundaries of work and life have blurred, but have enabled mobile professionals to be able to collaborate and work virtually.
The study also found that organisations need to address several structural challenges within the workplace to ready themselves for the digital age, as well as flexi-work practices:
- Organisation’s Leaders are a key enabler to drive flexi-work practices in the workplace: Only 26% agree that their organisation’s leadership is committed in bridging the digital skills gap in the workplace.
- Organisational culture is important: Only 23% agree that their organisation has invested in culture development through training and development led by HR.
- Access to newer, data-centric technologies to enhance collaboration and productivity: Only 21% feel that their organisation has invested in analytics and data tools to help them make informed and timely decisions; only 22% agree that their organisation has given them tools to simplify workflows.
Gaps hindering collaborative and productive outcomes from teams
Workplace shifts have undeniably resulted in new ways of work, where technologies have enabled increased collaboration between individuals and teams across geographies and groups. However, the study found that there were certain gaps today that hindered collaborative and productive outcomes from teams.
The top five challenges included:
- Too many face to face meetings that are taking up productive time (36%);
- Teams are too rigid and not open to new ways of work (29%)
- Teams take too long to respond to internal issues (26%);
- Teams are not open to new initiatives to improve processes (20%);
- Information about the team’s work or project is scattered in multiple places (17%)
- However, respondents feel that strong leadership and vision (45%), support from manager (44%) and access to technology tools for collaboration (41%) can help build more collaborative teams.
Employees want better technologies
The study also found that respondents are seeking better devices to help them become more productive at work. Beyond hardware requirements, 34% hope to have access to information and data on mobile devices, 26% wish for cloud-based productivity tools and 21% hope for real-time collaboration capabilities.
When asked about emerging technologies that will help build better work environments by 2020, almost half (48%) think real-time intelligences will help them make informed decisions at work. Forty-four percent believe artificial intelligence will be able to help perform tasks independently, and 33% look forward to virtual workspaces that support instant messaging and document sharing.
“As the nature of work changes, how employees collaborate and work together will be impacted as well. It is critical for business and HR leaders to seek ways to better empower individuals and remove barriers to collaborate for the digital age, especially when the Study clearly identifies gaps that can be minimized with technology. However, it is also important for businesses to also bridge the leadership and employee gap with more focus on people and culture,” said Wo.