MOST Malaysian workers are hopeful for flexible working to continue, but at the same time, they crave more in-person time with their teams.
This was shown in a recent Microsoft research, that also revealed that more than half of the local workforce feel overworked and exhausted, increasing the risk of burnout among employees.
Entitled ‘The Next Great Disruption is Hybrid Work – Are We Ready?’, the Work Trend Index identified seven emerging trends in Malaysia that will shape the future of a hybrid world.
- Flexible work is here to stay. With employees wanting the best of both worlds, 77% of Malaysian workers surveyed hopes for a flexible remote work option to continue, while 75% prefer more in-person working experiences. To prepare for this, 62% of business leaders in Malaysia are considering to redesign the office space to accommodate a hybrid working environment.
- Leaders need to stay in touch with employees. According to the research, 46% of business leaders are ‘thriving’ and doing better compared to their employees, which is 16 percentage points higher than those without decision-making power.
- High productivity is masking an exhausted workforce. Although self-assessed productivity has remained the same or higher for many employees over the past year, 58% of workers in Malaysia feel overworked and exhausted with the increased responsibilities being placed upon them during these hard times.
- Gen Z is at risk and needs to be re-energised. Those aged between 18 and 25, also known as Gen Z, say that they are merely ‘surviving’ or ‘flat-out struggling’. This might increase the risk of them severely impacted by the feeling of isolation, feeling unmotivated at work and lack the financial means to create proper work spaces at home.
- Shrinking networks are endangering innovation. Working teams tend to be more siloed in a digital work world, with 38% of workers in Malaysia experiencing decreased interactions with co-workers following the shift toward remote working.
- Authenticity will spur productivity and well-being. Co-workers tend to be leaning on each other in various ways to get through the year, with 22% admitted that they have cried with a colleague, while 14% sought a relaxing time with their colleagues’ pets or families (26%) virtually. Such interactions have led to 44% or workers in Malaysia feeling like they can be their authentic selves at work.
- Talent is everywhere in a hybrid work world. 47% of those surveyed are planning to move to a new location this year, indicating that people no longer have to leave their desk, house or community in order to expand their career opportunities.
This also led to 45% of workers and 57% of Gen Zs in Malaysia being likely to consider leaving their current employers this year.
“The pandemic has proven that organisations can and must trust their people to be productive from anywhere, and anytime. With almost all key economic sectors reopening in Malaysia, leaders now have the opportunity to define a hybrid workplace strategy that combines the best of the digital workplace and the physical workplace,” said Microsoft Malaysia chief marketing & operations officer Michal Golebiewski.
“The implementation of a successful hybrid work culture will require organisations to experiment and refine over a long-term period. Employee wellbeing should be at the forefront of this strategy and it will require a rethinking of long-held assumptions by organizations, bearing in mind the impact it will have on the growth, as well as its ability to foster collaboration and innovation,” Golebiewski continued.
In light of this, the Work Trend Index identifies five strategies for business leaders in order to begin their journey to shift for the future of the working trend:
- Create a plan to empower people for extreme flexibility
- Invest in space and technology to bridge the physical and digital worlds
- Combat digital exhaustion from the top
- Prioritiase rebuilding social capital and culture
- Rethink employee experience to compete for the best and most diverse talent. – May 10, 2021
