Work from home: Fad or Fab?

Considering the pandemic has entered a new phase in both Hong Kong and China, more companies are considering scrapping their WFH policy for fear that it is hurting employees’ productivity. If that is what you are planning to do, please read on before you take your next step.

The WFH trend in Hong Kong

During the outbreak of the pandemic in Hong Kong in 2021, 72% of organizations in Hong Kong support WFH and 79% provide related measures for their employees. Yet, the figure has started to dwindle. A PWC report released in Oct 2022 reveals that only 45% have an option for remote working. It might sound puzzling when evidence is telling us that WFH brings so many benefits to the employers.

Upsides of WFH

1.      Employees’ satisfaction

Should the company consider employees’ satisfaction only, WFH should no doubt be staying. The PWC report shows that 89% of Hong Kong employees prefer to work entirely or mostly remotely. A global research paper published in Aug 2022 reveals that one-quarter of workers would quit or start looking for another job if they were told to return to the workplace five days a week; and they are willing to take a 5% pay cut to keep the option of working from home.

As recruitment consultants, we have seen companies facing backlashes trying to ask employees to go back to office. Recalling employees from remote work could be painful and costly.

2.      Costs

Having a WFH policy in place could help employers save money on real estate/ rent, utility bills, etc. According to Global Workplace Analytics, average real estate saving with fulltime remote work is USD$10,000 per employee per year. IBM has already slashed US$50million real estate cost by introducing a WFH policy.

3.      Tap into a greater talent pool

A WFH policy widens the company’s talent pool and creates a more inclusive workforce. A survey finds that remote jobs attract 2.2x more candidates and 2.2x more women than non-remote jobs. It also brings more opportunities to people with disabilities.

Having a remote work policy also opens the door for companies to tap into global talents. The global HR payroll software market valued at US$25.1 billion in 2021 is expected to reach US$46 billion in 2028. The cost to hire globally would be significantly lowered which is attractive for companies that operate around the clock. 

Whether WFH boosts productivity depends on these 4 factors

1.      Key business activities

By now we should be wary of the studies that simply tells us WFH boost productivity without telling us what type of business they have surveyed and the work that are required of their workers. An academic study in 2012 shows that office workers assigned boring tasks performed better and faster in regular office settings, but creative workers are working more efficiently when working remotely. Office setting is also found to be more productive for meeting new people, managing others, and team meetings, according to the 2022 State of Remote Work Report.

2.      Age of your workers

Although the State of Remote Work Report shows that 62% of workers feel more productive when working remotely, it denotes differences across generations — Millennials and Gen Z generally feeling more productive at home, while Boomers and Gen X feel more productive at office.  

3.      Productivity tracking measures

Whether WFH is effective also depends on whether employers have adopted productivity tracking measures appropriate to their business activities.

60% of managers are concerned that workers are less productive when working remotely. While it is not entirely illegitimate for employers to track workers’ productivity when they are working from home, it is a fine line to tread. Asking your workers to have webcam on all day could be a breach of human rights; obliging them to pick up the call within three-rings, like an online retail platform in Hong Kong infamously does, could cause immense stress among your workers.

Noticing the online surveillance industry is expected to grow from an annual sales rate of about US$488million to $1.7billion by 2029, more employers are desperate to find ways to monitor their employees’ performance. Products like Termind, ActivTrak and Hubstaff are offering features such as tracking the applications your remote employees are using, the websites they are visiting and even providing screenshots of their activities or monitoring their keystrokes. Such applications may be more relevant for works that do not require much creative or autonomous input, such as customer service and data entry. Otherwise, it is counterproductive for managers to spend time and resources on such trivialities when employees’ performance could be better reflected on the quality of their project delivery.

4.      Company development cycle

Unless adopting a completely distributed structure or business model, companies at start up stage or expanding quickly should avoid extensive WFH.

It is crucial for startups to build cohesion and that is more effectively done face-to-face. A study shows that team performance is worsened when more co-workers are working from home.

For rapidly expanding companies, having an extensive WFH policy means they have to onboard newcomers virtually. It is possible but not ideal. A study reveals that newcomers that were onboarded virtually gave 34% less recognition to colleagues and were less likely to associate the recognition to a specific organizational value.

Workers need to know and trust each other to work collaboratively but remote work poses challenges to that. In these cases, WFH might bring more benefits to mature companies than to the younger ones.