SA’s top earners prefer hybrid work
Hybrid working is surprisingly sticky among South Africa’s middle to top-end earners according to a new survey. Many people were reluctant to return to the office after lockdown although employers wanted them to return full-time – so hybrid working has become a kind of compromise for employers and employees.
Working from home was necessary during Covid and it showed that knowledge workers could maintain productivity levels at their homes. Since then, corporations have made a concerted effort to get people back to the office, stressing the benefits of personal interactions, watercooler chats and consistent immersion in company culture.
Many employees advocated for hybrid solutions and workplace flexibility has become a leading factor in attracting and retaining talent, says Brandon de Kock, BrandMapp’s director of storytelling.
“Traditionally, work from home was mostly the preserve of the self-employed. There are jobs that are bound to the workplace... But many knowledge workers and corporate managers can do a lot of their work from home.”
He says Covid gave many more people the opportunity to experience work from home and a lot of them liked it.
BrandMapp first measured the work-from-home trend in 2022 and found that 56% of employed adults were still permanently working from home or going into the office part-time.
“A year later, there’s barely any shift, with only 47% of employed adults back in their workplaces full time, while 54% are choosing the hybrid work trend or working permanently from home,” he says.
Who are SA’s hybrid workers?
The 35 000 respondents in the recently released BrandMapp 2023 represent 13 million adults who live in homes with a household income of more than R10 000 a month which is defined as “midmarket-and-up” and comprises SA’s entire taxpaying base.
“When we take a closer look at who today’s hybrid workers are, we see barely any change at all compared with 2022,” says De Kock. “Executive-level employees are more likely to be hybrid workers and the only notable difference is that if you do not manage anyone, you are more likely to have heeded the latest call to return to the office.”
De Kock says diverse industries power the economies of SA’s provinces and where there’s greater concentrations of knowledge workers, there seem to be more opportunities for work from home and hybrid work.
“Working all day from home is most common in Gauteng and the Western Cape, which along with the Free State also rank highest for hybrid work,” adds De Kock.