SIX IN 10 Malaysians want employers to offer hybrid work as a benefit to improve their work-life balance but less than 40% are willing to take a pay cut to work remotely, according to human resources (HR) solutions agency Randstad.
This was revealed in its latest white paper, which draws insights from Randstad’s new talent expectations survey and other research to help businesses gain insights into the changing labour landscape and engage with today’s talent in a meaningful way.
Its survey looked at more than 1,200 respondents across Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore – with a minimum sample size of 300 per market – from July and September 2022.
In a statement today, Randstad Malaysia country director Fahad Naeem said the group has been trying to tackle the definition of work-life balance for a long time in Malaysia.
“With the research supporting the white paper, we now understand that it is all about work flexibility in Malaysia – and employers now have more information to develop more comprehensive workforce strategies that will meet these new talent expectations,” he said.
Most of those surveyed as part of the Reimagine Work: Managing Shifts in Talent Expectations white paper believe being able to work from home (WFH) or remotely will help them achieve a good work-life balance (60%), followed by good and reliable technology (38%) and shorter working hours on Fridays (36%).
Three in 10 respondents in Malaysia defined work-life balance as having the flexibility to work anytime and anywhere they want as long as they can meet all their deadlines.
Supporting this, the survey found that 39% of respondents tracked all their projects and tasks to ensure they have evidence of being productive when working from home.
A quarter of respondents, on the other hand, associated work-life balance with having enough personal time to do the things they like with the people they care about while a close 24% spoke about having the ability to incorporate work into their plans for their life and family.
Elaborating, more than four in 10 respondents said that the best thing they like about hybrid work is that they could have more flexibility and personal time at night and during the weekends.
“Spend time with family”
Others said they could spend time with their families as a result (40%) while 36% of those surveyed said they were more productive at home as they can choose how to execute their tasks.
Commenting on this, Naeem said to an employee, the amount of time they can save from going back and forth to the office can be better spent with their family and friends.
“This is why we are starting to see many job seekers looking for new employers that offer benefits such as flexible work or a shorter working week,” he noted.
As such, Naeem urged companies looking to save costs by reducing the salaries of their remote workforce to consider the impact of such a move, especially since employees believe they have become more productive while working flexibly or remotely.
Meanwhile, the white paper also revealed that when workloads become unmanageable, the impact on work-life balance far exceeds the inconvenience of being office-bound: an overwhelming workload was the most-cited factor (73%) that threatened work-life balance, followed by an unreasonable boss and/or supportive colleagues (63%) and unnecessary or excessive overtime (62%).
Randstad further noted that an overwhelming workload can also be exacerbated by other reasons such as poor communication, which may lead to overtime as employees will need to take more time to understand and clarify the tasks that were assigned to them.
Naeem encouraged HR professionals to further clarify their flexible work policy to help improve overall organisational work-life balance, saying flexible working should not mean that everyone is available 24/7.
“HR professionals should be setting clearer policies on flexible work, such as fixing core hours for team activities, reducing the number and frequency of meetings and narrowing communication channels down to a few that work best for the company,” he said. – Nov 3, 2022
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