VMware MeConomy study shows employees want to work wherever they want

A study recently released by VMware reflects a new reality where more employees demand the ability to work away from the office, at any time and on any device.

The VMware MeConomy 2014 study, which included over 150 respondents from Singapore, revealed that more than six out of 10 respondents in Singapore said they feel their home or home office would be the ideal place to work, with 72% indicating that they could maintain the same productivity level outside of office for at least 50% of the time. 

Source: VMware. Ong.

“As we look around the industry, mobile is changing the way we work, and businesses need to evolve quickly. Companies are facing a challenging time in this new mobile cloud era, where business expectations of IT accelerates exponentially with the increase of mobile employees in the workforce, along with thousands of new applications and services, despite a stagnant IT budget,” said Leslie Ong, Country Manager, VMware Singapore.

With multiple access devices such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones, mobile workers can put pressure on IT departments to deliver a high level of service and access without compromise.

Employees surveyed in Singapore said they expect their company to support a mobile workforce by providing a comprehensive and accepted flexible working policy (56%), providing equipment and hardware that allow them to work everywhere (54%), and providing tools that enable access to applications they need on their own devices (48%).

Gabriela Domicelj, Engagement Practice Leader, Asia Pacific, Aon Hewitt Consulting, agrees that working anywhere is important. Speaking during a panel discussion at the Singapore launch of the book Talented Southeast Asia, published by PageUp People, she said: "Banks in Indonesia are offering a lot of flexi-arrangements for staff. Young employees want a lot of flexibility. They want to be told what to do, but not how to do it."

Caroline Palmstedt, Regional Talent Management Lead, APAC, Monsanto, who was also part of the panel added: "Give autonomy to employees to decide where they want to work from, and you will see an increase in productivity."

For IT support, employees surveyed said they were eager to have faster network access (53%), equipment that works (53%) and virtual desktops that they can access from any device (42%).

Ong added, “At VMware, we believe that flexible IT arrangements and the ability to work from anywhere influences how employees feel at work. The most competitive and agile companies will be those that empower their employees to work at the speed of life, with access to their desktop from any device. This also means IT will be able to meet the demands of the business and provision services, powered by the software-defined data centre to reduce costs, streamline management and deliver a truly great user experience.” 

To help IT support mobile workers better, VMware recently announced VMware Horizon 6, an updated portfolio of end-user computing solutions designed to further simplify the use and management of virtual desktops and applications through a single platform.

*The VMware MeConomy 2014 study was conducted by Acorn Marketing & Research Consultants. Approximately 2,455 people between the ages of 18-64 years old participated in the survey and all respondents work in organisations with more than 1,000 staff globally and work for at least 15 hours per week. The survey covers 14 markets across Asia Pacific and Japan (comprising of Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam).