The verdict is out. After experiencing various working arrangements, including work-from-home (WFH) and hybrid formats, employees prefer to work from home three out of five days a week.
This was one of the findings from an online survey on employees’ attitudes towards commuting pre- and post-circuit breaker, as well as their preferences for, and perceived productivity while working from home. The research also examined commute-related factors that impact employees’ perceived well-being.
Supervised by Professor Vivien Lim from the Dept of Management and Organisation, the team of undergraduate students, comprising Chua Jia Xuan, Clarisse Gan, Preethi Ravi and Zuo Haolin, conducted the survey for their field service project. This was done in partnership with SWAT Mobility, a Singapore-based smart mobility solution firm. The full report is available on SWAT Mobility’s website.
The students said, “Through this project, we have discovered more about Singaporean employees’ preferences towards WFH, as well as the HR implications of transportation provisions/allowances. This experience has shown us how research can lead to practical insights about everyday lives. ”
Differences on ideal work arrangement across age groups
The students reached out to over 100 employees in September 2020. On employees’ views towards the ideal WFH/WIO arrangement, majority of workers aged between 20 and 59 prefer to work from home, while those 60 years and above prefer to work in the office. Among younger respondents (aged 20-29) however, only about one-third want to go into the office.
Respondents’ ideal arrangement for working from home and working in office
Findings also showed that compared to men, women felt that they were more productive in a WFH scenario. Despite this, women preferred to spend less time WFH compared to men. The team felt that this may be because women felt more stressed from having to juggle more between domestic and work responsibilities when they WFH.
Public transportation and transportation allowances were also factors workers considered when thinking about whether or not to return to the office.
Post-circuit breaker, almost one third of respondents felt unsafe travelling by public transport, a five-fold increase compared to pre-circuit breaker.
Also, while more than 70 per cent of respondents felt that some form of transport provision or transport allowance would motivate them to go to the office. The majority of HR professionals surveyed did not think that transport provision is necessary as their companies were located in easily accessible areas.
Professor Vivien Lim, workplace health expert, said, “While remote work can deliver gain in productivity, it cannot totally replace working in office. Our findings revealed that employees opted for partial WFH. A complete 100% WFH arrangement may not benefit organisations in the long-run.
“Many organisational and work processes such as socialisation, unplanned innovation, collaboration, learning, are best done through face-to-face rather than online interactions. Going forward, the trend is moving towards a hybrid office, where employees shift between office work space and home or other off-site spaces,” she said.
She felt that the field service project gives students the opportunity to apply what they have learned in class to real-world problems. “This project helps them to understand that everything is linked in the ecosystem i.e., COVID-19 is not just a health threat; it also disrupts employees’ commuting and work arrangements, organisational functioning as well as livelihoods.”
