Hybrid work has improved total employee well-being, work-life balance, and performance in Singapore, according to a new global Cisco study. While organisations have benefited from higher employee productivity levels, more needs to be done to build an inclusive culture and fully embed hybrid work arrangements to boost readiness levels and enhance employee experience.
Cisco’s Employees are ready for hybrid work, are you? study found that one in two (56%) employees in Singapore believe that quality of work has improved. A similar number (60%) felt that their productivity has enhanced. Three-quarters of employees (76%) also feel their role can now be performed just as successfully remotely as in the office.
However, the survey of 28,000 employees from 27 countries, including over 1,000 respondents from Singapore, reveals that only one in five (19%) Singapore employees think that their company is ’very prepared’ for a hybrid work future. This is lower than the global average of 23%.
“The last two years have shown us that work is no longer about where we go, but what we do. In a hybrid normal, Singapore employees and employers alike experience tangible benefits across key indications – from improved employee well-being to better productivity and work performance,” said Andy Lee, MD, Cisco, Singapore and Brunei.
“However, hybrid work is more than just supporting a safe office re-entry. Leaders need to rethink how to cultivate an inclusive culture, place employees – their experience, engagement, and wellbeing – at the centre, and modernise their networking and security infrastructure to provide a seamless, secure and inclusive employee experience.”
Cisco’s research examined the impact of hybrid working on five categories of wellbeing – emotional, financial, mental, physical, and social wellbeing – with over three-quarters of respondents (79%) saying hybrid and remote working has improved various aspects of their wellbeing.
Time away from the office has improved work-life balance for 83% of employees in Singapore – a sentiment more significantly felt in the country compared to the global average of 79% and regional average of 81%. More flexible work schedules (61%) and significantly reduced or completely removed commuting times (50%) contributed to this improvement. Nearly two-thirds of people (70%) saved at least four hours per week when they worked from home, and over a quarter (28%) of respondents saved eight or more hours a week.
Four in five (82%) Singapore respondents also say that their financial wellbeing improved, with their average savings reaching to over US$9,000 a year. More than eight in 10 (84%) ranked savings on fuel and/or commuting among their top three areas for savings, followed by decreased spending on food and entertainment at 79%. Close to nine in 10 (87%) believe they can maintain these savings over the long term, and 65% would take these savings into account when considering changing jobs.
In addition, seven in 10 (72%) respondents believe their physical fitness has improved with remote working. A similar number (70%) say hybrid working has positively impacted their eating habits. A majority (74%) indicate that remote working has improved family relationships and half (50%) of the respondents reporting strengthened relationships with friends.
The future of work is hybrid, according to seven in 10 employees in Singapore (71%) who say they want a combination of a remote and in-office hybrid working model in the future, compared to a fully remote (25%) and fully in-office (4%) experience.
However, there is uncertainty over how different work styles might impact inclusion and engagement. Half of Singapore respondents believe micromanaging behaviours had increased with hybrid and remote working. Trust from managers that employees can be productive has been a common and critical theme in their working experience.
“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 hybrid working that employees clearly prefer. Leaders and companies need to commit to actions that go a long way in retaining their people – listening, building trust, and leading with empathy, flexibility, and fairness,” said Anupam Trehan, Senior Director, People & Communities, Cisco, APJC.
At the same time, technology will remain critical to enabling a future with increasingly diverse and distributed workforces. Six out of 10 (60%) respondents believe having connectivity issues regularly is career-limiting for remote workers. As a result, 84% say networking infrastructure is essential for a seamless working from home experience, but around 30% say their company still needs the right networking infrastructure.
Around three-quarters (73%) of respondents in Singapore believe that cybersecurity is critical for making hybrid working safe, but only two-thirds (66%) say their organisation currently has the right capabilities and protocols in place. Only 64% think that all employees across their company understand the cyber risks involved with hybrid work, and 65% think business leaders are familiar with the risks.
“Technology is a key enabler of growth in the hybrid workplace, and it needs to be underpinned by end-to-end integrated security. Organisations should prioritise a robust security posture that underpins every digitalisation effort and ensure that cybersecurity is at the core of their technology architecture.
"Amid the expanded attack surface area today as more users and devices connect to corporate applications, organisations will need to bolster security and build greater vigilance through enabling secure access, and protecting users and endpoints in the network and the cloud,” said Juan Huat Koo, Director, Cybersecurity, Cisco ASEAN.
