Zoom-boom is continuing

FIVE-DAY WEEK: MANY REMOTE-CAPABLE WORKERS ARE LOOKING FOR MORE FLEXIBLE JOBS

Survey indicates larger corporates are adapting to the future of work.

Where and how middle-class people are employed in 2022 showed an interesting change in a new survey, based on a sample of more than 33 000 respondents representing the 12.8 million South African adults living in households with monthly income exceeding R10 000.

The BrandMapp 2022 survey showed the country’s workplaces were in a state of flux, in line with global trends, says Brandon de Kock, director of storytelling at BrandMapp.

“It is important to note government employment is static, with the same 29% of mid and top-income earners in state jobs this year.

“However, there is a significant shift away from employment in large companies, with over 1 000 employees moving to smaller concerns.

“Is this because the corporate behemoths are less inclined to enable the more flexible working conditions that employees want?”

Before the disruption of the coronavirus pandemic, the office as we knew it had already started changing, with a sudden exodus of workers from their corporate desks.

This accelerated the development and uptake of technologies which made it possible for employees to work from home and quickly proved on a global scale that people working remotely were as productive.

“While there is much to be said in favour of the five-day-a-week return to the workplace and all the benefits of in-person comingling with team-mates and colleagues, many remote-capable employees have had long-standing yearnings and aspirations for more flexible working conditions, or at the very least, what has become known as a ‘hybrid working’ model.”

De Kock said this was a trend measured for the first time this year in the BrandMapp survey.

“Perhaps as expected, the survey reveals a slight drop in fulltime employment compared to 2021. There has also been a subtle shift towards self-employment and part-time work, with a minimal rise in unemployment.”

He said, given the current economic hardships, these changes were slight enough to still argue for the resilience and robustness of the country’s tax-paying middle class.

“It is a picture that is totally in line with the latest Quarterly Labour Force survey showing, while unemployment is rising as a percentage of total population, we are still adding hundreds of thousands of jobs back into the economy.”

The rise of hybrid work?

In line with global working trends showing an average of 39% of the world’s workforce practicing hybrid work, BrandMapp confirmed a limited return to the five-day office week.

“Almost half of the middle-class earning under R40 000 a month has returned to the pre-pandemic work routine, while 36% of them have become hybrid workers.”

De Kock said it was almost exactly the other way round for the top earners, with only 37% of them in workplaces all week and 46% splitting their time.

“Some of them are, no doubt, enjoying the peace and quiet and better coffee that comes with working from home for at least part of the working week.”

This matched data coming out of developed countries showing more executive-level workers were benefiting from hybrid work models, while workers had been summoned back to their desks.

With employee demand for flexible working conditions front and centre and hybrid work options touted as one of the important ways employers can compete for top talent, De Kock said it was helpful to know what kind of companies are enabling this.

The data suggested the largest South African companies were currently better enablers of hybrid and remote work than their medium-to-large counterparts.

You were more likely to have to return permanently to your workplace if you were working for a company with more than 10 but less than 1 000 employees.

“For the time being, it seems that the corporate behemoths are not inflexible employers and they rather seem to have their fingers on the pulse of the future of work and are better at allowing remote-capable employees to do their thing.”

De Kock said, considering the return to the corporate five-dayweek in the office for South African managers, senior and middle management reflected the global average, which was a 44% fulltime return to the workplace.

“However, our junior managers are clearly holding down the fort. This comes at a time when there is a growing corporate call for all workers to make a permanent return to the office, perhaps indicating that there is a case of ‘do what I say, not what I do’ at play at the top management level.”

Technology the great enabler

Technology has clearly been a great enabler.

De Kock says. Since BrandMapp includes a comprehensive view of digital habits, the data also shows how usage of virtual conferencing and meeting platforms has continued to grow.

“The Zoom-boom was not a stopgap, it was a meaningful trend. We measured 42% of the total middle-class-and-up workforce saying they regularly use platforms like Zoom, Teams and Google Meets and there is no reason to think it is a behaviour that is going to change any time soon.”

It is notable that 58% of middle-class South Africans embracing hybrid work are employed in the financial services industry, arguably the ultimate, traditional cubicle-dweller workplaces.

“Who says you cannot teach an old dog a new trick?

“On the lower end of this scale, it is also significant that one third of middle-class-and-up government employees are looking at hybrid work options.”