Employees in Hong Kong want to continue remote work

While more organisations are mandating a return to the office, employees in Hong Kong are more reluctant to work onsite, compared to their counterparts in Singapore and some major Western countries.

Over 60% of employees in Hong Kong do not want to return to the office, compared to 58% in UK, 54% in Singapore, 43% in the US, and the worldwide average of 51%, according to a poll by Unispace.

More than two-thirds of the respondents from Hong Kong (69%) said they struggled to get work done in their offices because of distractions and the number of meetings and 29% said they had greater privacy at home, with more than one in four respondents (26%) stating that they felt more effective working away from their offices.

These contrast with what employers believe are main barriers for employees to return to the office: a lack of willingness to travel (21%) and being unhappy about transporting equipment like laptops between work and home (20%).

This disconnect, according to Sean Moran, Unispace’s Senior Principal for Client Development in Asia, can be attributed to managers and employees having different priorities and expectations on what they want at work, reported South China Morning Post.

READ MORE: Work-life balance a growing priority for employees in Hong Kong  

“Hong Kong businesses need to understand the concerns and struggles of their staff, from work arrangement and office productivity to burnout. It is important that you are providing the right solutions for these people, and the flexibility and trust to move things along, and [then] you will naturally see an increase in performance and productivity,” he added.