Asia-Pacific sees largest drop in hybrid work arrangements, survey finds

In the Asia-Pacific region, the proportion of hybrid workers fell from 39 per cent to 36 per cent from 2022 to 2023, while the proportion of fully on-site workers increased from 49 per cent to 53 per cent, a survey by ADP found.

Despite a slight increase in back-to-work mandates, only 6 per cent of APAC employees said that their employer had become less flexible regarding where and when they worked, suggesting that back-to-office mandates had not become the norm.

“Back-to-office mandates might be more bluster than fact. Workers say their employers have become more flexible, not less, when it comes to when and where they do their jobs,” the report said.

Countries with high proportions of white-collar employees in industries such as professional services saw the smallest drops in remote work arrangements. The ADP found that the hybrid workforce grew by 2 percentage points between 2022 and 2023 in North America.

“The heavy concentration of Canadian and U.S. workers in sectors that facilitate remote work, such as finance, professional services, information and technology, might be driving this trend,” the report said.

Flexibility is an important quality to workers, the survey found. A quarter of workers globally (25 per cent) listed flexible hours as one of their top three priorities in a job, and 15 per cent listed flexibility of location as a top-three priority, ADP said.

Unsurprisingly, pay was a top-three priority for 55 per cent of workers globally, followed by job security (46 per cent) and career progression (34 per cent).

ADP also found that Australian workers were much more likely to value flexibility of hours than other workers in the APAC region.

While workers valued flexibility, remote employees reported feeling more insecure in their work than hybrid or on-site workers. The survey found that almost a quarter (24 per cent) of fully remote workers felt insecure in their jobs, compared to 19 per cent of those who worked on site.

“This finding might reflect a general unease among remote workers given their physical absence from the job site,” ADP said.

However, hybrid work appeared to mitigate these feelings of insecurity, with 20 per cent of hybrid workers saying they did not feel secure in their job.

Research has also found that Australian workers would be willing to accept a lower salary if it meant they could work from home at least some of the time.

Workers with hybrid or remote working arrangements earn nearly 6 per cent less than comparable employees who don’t work remotely, a report by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) found.

Previous CEDA research found that flexible work arrangements boosted workforce participation for historically under-represented groups, including women with young children, carers and those with disabilities.

“The growth in WFH has helped overcome participation barriers that previously made it harder for these groups to get a job, keep their job or increase their work hours,” CEDA said.

For sectors undergoing talent shortages, such as the accounting industry, flexible work practices could be a key sweetener to retain staff.