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Some 7,550 full-time employees and 1,650 employers were surveyed in November across seven Asia-Pacific markets –Australia, Hong Kong, India, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and South Korea.
Collaboration, brainstorming, and fostering a sense of belonging were the main motives for employees to return to the office.
Yet office layouts and seating arrangements were identified as a major reason employees felt their workplace was not conducive to collaboration and brainstorming. While there is a growing emphasis on collaboration, 88 per cent of the employers surveyed still said they allocate at least half of their office spaces to individual work stations.
Contrary to popular belief, more than two thirds of employees in Hong Kong responded positively to their organisation’s mandate to return to the office, and 97 per cent of them expressed a desire to return to the office at least a few times per week.
“Employees across the region have embraced hybrid work and are willing to return to the office more often, but with a caveat [that] workspaces must adapt to their evolving needs and expectations,” said Sandeep Mehra, the managing director, collaboration sales, at Cisco APJC.
“In the era of hybrid work, we must prioritise the evolution of our office spaces and technology to meet the needs of employees.”
It is critical that companies adopt smart technology to deliver on the expectations of employees, promote productivity and build a collaborative environment, no matter what an employees’ location, Mehra added.
The majority of employees feel that individual workstations, large and small meeting rooms were ineffective at boosting productivity in the office, or did so moderately at best.
Technology infrastructure and integration was also an area of concern. Employers found the main reasons meeting rooms were insufficient was included poor quality of the audio-visual experience, and inconsistency in the experience of remote and in-office participants.
On average, only 40 per cent of meeting rooms across organisations are equipped with video and audio capabilities, the survey found.
However, the results suggested employers are trying to make a change for the better. Some 80 per cent of employers have made changes post-pandemic to the workplace and 78 per cent plan to do so in the next two years.
“Employers’ progress in deploying collaborative technologies for hybrid work is commendable, but simply providing the tools isn’t enough,” said Mehra.
“Most employees don’t feel prepared to use them effectively. [Companies] need to focus on integrating these tools into the workplace to facilitate a smooth transition to this new work-normal and ensure these technologies are accessible and user-friendly for all.”
As an example, only 22 per cent of employers felt highly equipped to use video conferencing and just 10 per cent felt well-equipped to use advanced tools like footprint monitoring or smart meeting-room assistants.
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