Remote workplace arrangements increasingly the PHL norm — Regus

OVER HALF of the workers in the Philippines work outside their employer’s main off ice for at least half of the week, a survey by a workplace provider showed.

In a study conducted by the Regus, covering 200 respondents in the Philippines, 57% said that they work remotely, outside of their company’s main off ices, for half the week or more.

Only 33% however said they work mostly from home, and 50% said they work remotely “in order to remain productive while traveling to and from meetings within the same city or in other cities.” For the popular locations for remote work, 19% named business centers, while 13% said that they usually work overseas when working remotely.

“While remote working is clearly the norm, it certainly is not synonymous with home working: only a minority work exclusively from home,” the company said in a statement. Only 8% said they work exclusively from home.

Working remotely as shown in the survey indicates flexibility and mobility of the workers, rather than a clear preference for working exclusively at home.

Lars Wittig, Regus Philippines country manager, said in a statement: “These results show that today’s work force is truly mobile. Only a very small proportion of workers are true home-workers spending all their time out of the main office in a home-office. Workers report that they are not looking to replace one fixed office space with another such as the home, but are declaring that they need places to stop off and regain productivity while traveling to and from business meetings in their own, or in other cities.

“Business people clearly show that they need drop- in locations where they can productively work from a few hours to a full day. Business centers prove a popular choice as they can be found scattered across cities and provide a professional and collected environment that favors concentration, very much the opposite of noisy cafes where it is hard to find focus and privacy.”

Regus, based in Luxembourg and listed on the London Stock Exchange, has a network of 2,850 locations in over 1,000 towns and cities across 114 countries, serving 2.3 million members. —