With 92% of Filipino employees surveyed saying work from anywhere makes them happier…
It is a fact that the ongoing pandemic has changed the way many of us work. From spending countless hours at the office to just be working from home, and some are even allowed to work from anywhere, hybrid work is deemed as the new normal by Cisco.
Between January to March 2022, Cisco commissioned a study wherein 28,000 full-time employees from 27 countries (touching every continent other than Antarctica) shed insights into how they fared over the past two (02) years and what is needed to thrive in the hybrid working future. The “Cisco Global Hybrid Study 2022” was conducted by Dynata and was launched last 18 May 2022 at a media event at Cisco Singapore Office.
While organizations have benefited from higher employee productivity levels, more needs are needed to be addressed to build an inclusive culture and fully embed hybrid work arrangements to boost readiness levels and enhance employee experience.
According to Filipinos who participated in the study, hybrid working has improved their total employee well-being, work-life balance, and performance. Hybrid working is defined as a flexible working model where employees may work partly in a physical workplace and partly remotely (at home, another workspace, or simply anywhere).
Through hybrid working arrangements, 79% of Filipino respondents believe that their quality of work has improved, while 75% felt that their productivity has enhanced. Out of the 1,050 study participants from the Philippines, 84% shared they also feel that their role can now be performed just as successfully remotely as in the office. On the other hand, only 29% of respondents from the Philippines think that their company is “very prepared” for a hybrid work future.
“The new normal is work-from-home, work from the office, and work from anywhere you want. At the start of the pandemic, we had remote work. Everyone was getting a new broadband subscription, and a new router at home so that we can have an instant network to do remote work. Then when we were allowed to go back to the office, we think of hybrid work. Hybrid work is much more complex,” according to Bee Kheng Tay, President – ASEAN at Cisco.
Improved Total Employee Wellbeing, Thanks for Hybrid Working
The latest research commissioned by Cisco examined the impact of hybrid working on five (05) categories of well-being: emotional, financial, mental, physical, and social. The majority of the respondents (89%) said that hybrid and remote working has improved various aspects of their well-being, as well as their work-life balance for having the time away from the office. Some 74% of the study participants said that they saved at least four (04) hours per week when they worked from home, and 37% saved eight or more hours on a weekly basis.
For the financial part of their well-being, 9 out of 10 Filipino respondents said their average savings has improved (reaching over PHP344,046 a year) attributed to lesser consumption of fuel (and/or money spent on commuting) and decreased spending on food and entertainment. Some 89% believe that they are able to maintain these savings over the long term, with 68% saying that they would take these savings into account when considering changing jobs.
Talking about physical fitness and eating habits, most of the respondents believe that remote working has made them improve their lifestyle. A resounding majority (93%) indicated that their family relationships improved, and nearly two-thirds (63%) reported strengthened relationships with friends.
“Trust has become a core tenet in our hybrid work normal, alongside flexibility, and empathetic leadership. Our latest research indicates that more needs to be done to fully integrate hybrid work arrangements for employees, especially when it comes to building an inclusive culture powered by efficient technology infrastructure in this new world of working that employees clearly prefer,” said Anupam Trehan, Senior Director, People & Communities, Cisco APJC.
Download the Cisco Global Hybrid Work Study 2022 from here.