Pierre-Jean Chalon, senior vice-president, Asia Pacific, Poly says employees are voting with their feet in favour of companies that support workspaces with an effective organisational culture for people, and a robust technology enablement approach.
“Not just technology – people and spaces are also critical for any business strategy. This could be the difference between success and failure,” he opined.
Among the key findings of Poly’s Recruit, Retain and Grow study:
Recruitment and retention are at risk
About 60% of all organisations in Asia-Pacific (APAC) believe that if they don’t address their hybrid work processes and plans, they will start to lose staff and will be unable to attract new talent.
Organisations are already feeling the effects of this, with 58% globally seeing a greater turnover in staff since the start of the pandemic. In APAC, the effect is especially pronounced in India (78%) and Singapore (61%).
Do more to prevent employee burnout
While 67% of organisations in APAC believe they have a moral duty to protect employees from working too much, only 51% of organisations in APAC are taking steps to prevent people from feeling like they’re ‘always on’.
Just 35% are encouraging employees not to look at work emails outside of working hours and to take regular breaks, and only 16% have processes in place to make sure employees aren’t working long hours.
- 55% of organisations in Japan expect employees to manage their workloads and time.
- Only 10% in Singapore and Japan have processes in place to make sure employees aren’t working long hours.
- Nearly 1 in 5 organisations in China say it is the nature of their job to work long hours.
Culture and workforce wellness shortfall
Organisations appear to be adapting well to the shift to hybrid work, with 72% of surveyed companies reporting an increase in productivity. The sentiment is consistent in APAC (76%), specifically in China (89%), India (86%), and Singapore (79%).
However, 62% of organisations in APAC believe that if employees aren’t in the office, they won’t build the relationships they need to progress their careers. This is especially prevalent in Singapore (71%) and India (65%).
Other key concerns
- Employers worry there is an unhealthy culture of overworking (50%).
- Employers are concerned that remote working has made fostering and retaining work culture harder than ever (74%).
3 Es to recruit, retain and grow
The research revealed that 79% of organisations in APAC say the pandemic forced them to get smarter about how they use space, people, and technology.
Furthermore, technology and experiences are viewed by most companies in APAC as the face of the company, and not the office space alone (64%). Expanding the quotient of spaces available rather than the definition as to whether the space is virtual, offsite, remote, or hybrid, will help employers develop a robust hybrid work strategy.
Equalise virtual experiences
Forward-looking companies are investing in software and devices equally with cloud applications and collaboration software at 92% each. In APAC, organisations are leaning towards collaboration software at 93%. Singapore employers are also placing a heavy emphasis on cloud applications (93%), second only to China (97%).
Equalise office experiences
81% of organisations in APAC have plans to redesign their office layout to accommodate the new hybrid working norm, with the top focus points region-wide including creating more open plan areas (46%), creating more collaboration spaces (44%), and creating more ‘quiet zones’ (38%). Ultimately, employees will be the ones mainly utilising these spaces.
