WORK FROM HOME
What is the future of work? OECD has estimated that in about 20 years’ time, 14% of middle-skilled jobs are at risk of being automated. However, from another angle of the 4th Industrial Revolution, WEF reports that new jobs will be created, and this will offset those that are replaced by automated processes. Furthermore, technological innovations will assist humans to perform their tasks more effectively as organisations strive for higher employee productivity. By 2022, it was projected that big data analytics, apps, and web-enabled markets, and IoT will top the charts of technologies adopted. Whilst organisations thrive for employee productivity, the millennial will make up 75% of the workforce by 2025, and they represent the segment of the population that demands a work-life-balance culture. Employers therefore must think of how to incorporate such flexibility in their organisations as demand for it grows. With technology as enablers of connectivity, employees can have the flexibility of working from any location. The millennial also prefers to do freelance or project-based tasks so that they are not tied down to the organisation. The rise in these freelance and temporary jobs, and with technology, brought about the gig economy, which is estimated to grow in volume to USD455 billion in 2025, more than double that of that in 2018. Gig work allows the individual to work from any location, and this means working from home, omitting travel to work time and stress.
Covid-19 has forced the dream of working from home to come true
“IS THIS THE NEW NORMAL? IT CAN BE. IF WE CAN BE AGILE AND ADAPTABLE.”
DATUK DR. MOHD YUSOFF SULAIMAN, PRESIDENT & CEO OF MIGHT
In the light of the Covid-19 pandemic and the various strategies taken by governments all over the world to control its spread, most workers are now grounded at home and are expected to perform their job duties from home. Malaysians are no exception and the Movement Control Order (MCO) imposed has forced thousands of us to work from home. Working from home is a subset of remote work, which is defined in a report by Highfive as ‘working from any location that remote from a primary office’. Remote work is a way of working whilst working from home is a mode and is not a new phenomenon. Several industries or sectors have already been practising this. One glaring example would be the e-hailing services – food, transport, goods carriers, and even skilled manual labour such as plumbing etc. The pandemic, therefore, has caused a drastic change in the way we conduct our work. Just imagine. Working from home is like working with freedom to start at any time you want whilst saving on commuting to and from the workplace, but getting the work done in a timely manner, with full autonomy given to you on time management. There may possibly be those who prefer the familiarity and ambience of their homes as compared to the monotony of the office environment, and this preference seems to be showing an upward trajectory over the years. When there appears to be already organisations practising this form of employment, many others would dream of what it
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Malaysian Technology Strategic Outlook 2019/2020 Intergration of High Technology
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