Breaking down Remote Working: Data & Facts
We understand that we promised you an entry about drinking and working, or drinking while working, and honestly we will absolutely love to do that just for the entry, however, apart from our schedule for this week, there is an issue that has been boggling us for the longest time ever. Recently, it showed up right in our face again, hence we decided to break it down.
For a good long time, whenever we mention about remote working, as mentioned in a previous entry, we are almost all the time faced with skepticism.
Will it work? Does it really benefit me? How is it going to work?! Best of all, the question and doubt we got recently was exactly how huge is this movement. It is no doubt that the western side of the world are the ones more apt at it currently, and we thought that it will be full blown here in about a year to two’s time, but Asia is definitely picking it up gradually and embracing it arms open, increasingly faster. One quick search on Google gets you the following articles, such as the counter arguments to why isn’t remote working more popular, facts & benefits about remote workers such as being happier and more engaged, some of the global remote working trends, to even Ministry of Manpower mentioning that more companies are embracing this trend, and furthermore launching an advisory to guide employers how to inculcate and implement flexible work arrangments in the company. You know it’s no joking matter when the Singapore Government execute such a step.
So, let me quote and unquote one of them, “I’m often asked “Why isn’t remote work more popular?” My first response is to ask: do you know how popular it is right now?”
Remote work is more popular than you think.
Before it feels like we are shoving this down your throat, allow us to clear this up one by one for you.
How big exactly is remote working globally, and in Singapore?
Before we answer this, please take note that there will be some terms used interchangeably, such as “telecommuting”, “teleworking” and “remote working”.
On a global scale, based on a survey done by PGi, surveyed across North America, Europe, Middle East & Africa, as well as Asia Pacific Japan, 79% mentioned that they do work outside of their companies’ physical office, with North America being the one that is leading.
On the number of days they spend working outside their office, 76% from Asia Pacific Japan spend a day or less, while 20% of them about 2–3 days out of office. Interestingly but expected, a good amount of them view it as a positive effect and an improvement!
To put things into perspective, let’s look at local context. According to MOM’s figure, Singapore’s work force is at a 3.6 million in 2015. You can easily draw out the stats and report from here. For the benefit of time, let’s do in a very simple slice & dice manner and take it that only half of that are PMETs/White Collars, or people who have the ability or freedom to remote work, i.e. excluding those employed in the F&B sector, manufacturing, retail service etc.
Moving on, Microsoft, being one of the forerunners in the idea of remote working, did a study on the local and APAC demographics. With a 69% of the Singapore workforce considering themselves to be mobile worker, we can’t say for sure at this moment how many of them are adequately supported to do so or able able to do so effectively. Call us silly or naive, but this, to us mean latent market that awaits.
Slicing and dicing down, with some rough estimations and simple math, we will arrive at approximately about 1 million employed professionals, that are waiting to go remote, or mobile if you will call it, when they are able to. We don’t know about what the rest feels, but this seems pretty sizeable to us in this little red dot for starters.
What exactly are the benefits of remote working, to the employees, and employers?
For benefits of remote working from our perspectives, as well as some of the people we have interviewed, you can read more about it here. Now, let us take a look at what the others are saying.
In case you missed out, let us summarise it for you.
A more productive workforce, a more collaborative workforce, a more innovative workforce and a happier workplace.
Oh, and this didn’t come from us, it came from Microsoft.
Futhermore, based on another study done by Jive Software, there is a strong link between collaborative work culture and talent retention, with 79% respondents saying that they will consider quitting if they are unable to work remotely. A further question revealed 62% mentioned that they will look out for the option of being to work remotely as one of their consideration factor when seeking new employment. With an average cost of 30% of salary for entry-level, 150% for mid level for any employee turnover, this sounds like a pretty heavy cost to us, instead of offering them the ability to try out remote working and end up with happier workers. Besides, it is proven that remote workers actually are more engaged as well. Read about it here and here.
But, why now?
To be brutally frank, we can’t state with 100% precision as to why now, but we would say we are close enough with a 99% precision. For starters, you can read a little about our thoughts earlier here.
We have been very fortunate to come across certain people who have helped us along the way, more specifically there is one that we came across, who mentioned that he had tried doing a similar concept years ago, but no idea why it just wouldn’t fly. We even got some tips from him on what other areas we can consider. On hindsight, to add on, we will add the following reasons as to why now.
The market was not ready then. It is so much more now.
Years ago, tech had not improve and advance by leaps and bounds like today. Anyone and everyone can think and imagine for all they want on how they can try to go about working remotely, but the infrastructure and technology just wasn’t available then to support it. When we were still relying on msn, first generation email, sms-es and fax, there were little to no ways we can work remotely, effectively. However, with all that infocomm advancement and tech infrastructure support today, we are at a different level of playing field. Besides, since most of us are already working so many hours off office, if we are able to take it totally off office and complete it in our own time, instead of having to spend time in office, THEN off office, isn’t it better?
One may also argue that, well, maybe a while later the market may even be more ready? Wouldn’t it be better if we see more people trying it out first?
To this point I guess all we can say is that, by then, the market will be more than ready, and we will be playing the catching-up game all over again, catching up to whatever trends that have happened long ago elsewhere in the world.
More companies than before are embracing and adopting the culture.
Here is the list of companies top 100 companies that offer remote jobs. Do note that it is the Top 100, meaning that it is non-exhaustive, and that this is the the third annual list in running. By remote jobs here, we mean the legit ones that allow you to work offsite, not the ones you see on Facebook, spam mailers or pop-ups that say, ‘”EARN $XXXX working from home today!”.
Locally, examplars like MomoCentral are already a step ahead of the rest. The cherry on top would be that 5 in 10 private sector employers are embracing the culture too, figures up from 5 years ago.
So, what was that question about “why now”, again?
There are tonnes, we mean tonnes, of websites, aggregators, directories, and listings that offer you to find coworking spaces.
But there is only one platform such as ours, allowing you to find spaces that fit your needs, pay for only what you use and with a bunch of other perks coming soon (;
Do a search online, we bet you will probably had came across some of them before. Other than that, there are multiple different sites that help you secure a job that allows you to work remotely, like this one here.
Hopefully that with whatever above, we had broken down enough and manage to shine a light on the remote working culture here. It is no longer a concept that is very far away from us, or so foreign that we probably have to wait a few years before it catches up. If you have any other thoughts, feel free to let us know in the comments, or drop us an email at hello@surfingsuitcase.com.
The digital workplace is no longer the future of work.
It’s the new norm.
(We are huge and serious about the Future of Work. Find out now about places best suited to your work needs here)
