Increasing demand for more work flexibility

Companies increasingly offer perk to attract talent

“High flexibility may motivate higher skilled and more productive workers to actually choose those kind of jobs because they value flexibility.” Alyssa Farha Jasmin

PETALING JAYA: Jobs that allow for remote or hybrid working will attract the best talent compared with similar roles that may not offer such a flexibility.

This was revealed during a forum on the topic of “Valuations of Flexibility and Social Insurance Coverage of Gig Workers in Malaysia”, yesterday.

The development comes amid the rise of the gig economy’s popularity today, with more advanced communications at lower costs and more convenience becomes a priority.

“High flexibility may motivate higher skilled and more productive workers to actually choose those kind of jobs because they value flexibility.

“You may find that if you don’t offer flexibility, the more skilled or talented workers may not actually choose that particular job,” World Bank economist Alyssa Farha Jasmin told Starbiz on the sidelines of the forum.

“We find more workers are preferring more flexibility especially after the Covid pandemic.

“The participation rate of women in the workforce is low in Malaysia and one of the reasons why they don’t re-enter the workforce is because there are no jobs that offer such flexibility. We see a higher rise in demand for workplaces offering such flexibilities,” Alyssa said.

Meanwhile, World Bank senior economist Yashodhan Ghorpade said a strong indicator of the rise of remote-working demand comes from job vacancy advertisements.

“I have seen in my own work, in three countries including Malaysia, a very clear uptake when private companies advertise jobs online through job search portals that more and more are highlighting how much flexibility the job offers.

“Around 70%-80% of job portals mention whether one is allowed to do remote working, in the office or a hybrid model.

“These are becoming part of any job description, including entry-level jobs. So even the entry-level workers also want a certain degree of flexibility in a job and people want to know that as they apply for jobs,” Ghorpade said.

He also noted that not all roles, such as actors, law enforcement, doctors or the military, sare able to offer remote working.

Ghorpade said there is no one-size-fitsall formula for job flexibility as conditions vary from job to job, and as such, the degree of flexibility on the job should be discussed between the employer and employee.

“There could be people who are very on time in the office and don’t have any productivity to back that up.

“This traditional mindset between the hours of working and the location of work or just to be seen at work is outdated.

“This is the concept of ‘presenteeism’ which is compared to ‘absenteeism’ – this concept of just because you’re present means you’re working is also not true. Labour markets are becoming more sophisticated in measuring work productivity in other ways,” Ghorpade said.

“Generally speaking, across the board there is an appreciation that there is some value to offering some degree of flexibility to workers and not just being sustained on completely fixed work schedules.

“But at the same time companies also balance this with their considerations of productivity so the balance is for each company to figure this out for each role and taking into account the preferences of workers,” he added.