Working from home: A dream job for many?
According to Forbes, the millennial is the driving force that causes working from home no longer a dream for many of us, even before the pandemic. What used to be considered as an annoying trait of the millennial is now valued by most segments in general. They value work-life-balance and a number of job advertisements nowadays include this criterion as a one of the attractions of a job opening. Coupled with internet technology and connectivity continuously improving, besides e-commerce and delivery services, other sectors have also jumped on the bandwagon such as teaching or tutoring, marketing, and advertising, and consulting, to name a few. Some of the advantages of working from home are firstly, flexibility. The ability to work from home helps in balancing work and family schedules and demands. With flexibility comes independence. Without too many interruptions in the form of physical meeting requirements and less downtime with unnecessary interactions with co-workers, we have more independence and efficiency in getting our work done. This leads to creativity in getting a task done, and with it, increased productivity. Physical meeting requirements require commuting to and from the conventional workplace. For those working in certain areas where traffic during peak hours is an issue, this is an onerous task. Working from home removes the ‘travelling to work’ component from the daily routine. For the employers, it is a cost cutting benefit as they can reduce operating costs in managing an office building. It is also reported that due to the attractiveness and ease of working from home, employee turnover is reduced, as workers, generally feel more accomplished joyful and less stressed. They also have the flexibility to hire people from outside the country as to what would normally be a hindrance with issues of geographical location of the candidate. Additionally, on the local front, it has been suggested for the SMEs to move away from the ‘familiar landscape’ and take advantage of the movement control order (MCO) to continue their operations through teleworking. Remote working is the buzzword and so is working fromhome. The e-hailing company Grab has started offering benefits such as free personal accident coverage to its gig workers and will be providing EPF benefits as well, and that is certainly an improvement to their hiring package.
“PEOPLE TODAY REALLY VALUE WORKPLACE FLEXIBILITY AND REMOTE WORK BECAUSE IT ALLOWS THEM TO FOCUS THEIR ENERGIES ON WORK AND LIFE AS OPPOSED TO COMMUTING OR OTHER COMPLICATIONS DUE TO GEOGRAPHY.” KEN MATOS, VICE PRESIDENT OF RESEARCH, LIFE MEETS WORK Perhaps the ideal working space is right at home or wherever we feel comfortable to work from, other than the office, and that the idea of a workable open plan working space or co- working space is a mere trend being quashed by the powerful force of the pandemic, pushing many employers to do an overhaul on their HR policies to allow their employees to work from home. Creating a work environment that many would actually want to hang out in may simply mean that instead of renovating office spaces to accommodate such need. Big tech companies have been doing it for ages: Create a workspace so stunning that your employees do not want to leave. The aftermath of the pandemic is yet to be known and how this will chart the future of work can only be fathomed if we look at the advantages of remote work for those who have been working in this manner.
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Malaysian Technology Strategic Outlook 2019/2020 Intergration of High Technology
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