The Australian national study shows that flexibility makes us happier

In Australia, the government is phasing out the work-from-home directive.

A national survey of Australia interviewed 1,421 Australian knowledge workers in March 2022. The aim of the survey is to study the difference in working arrangements among hybrid, remote, and office work in Australia.

In this survey, it shows that flexibility makes employees happier due to hybrid working.

Table of Contents

Flexibility leads, survey shows

The survey sample was nationally representative of state and age populations, including 58% of males and 42% of females.

The survey asked participants a total of 46 questions, covering their current work arrangements, ideal work arrangements, health and well-being, workplace culture, skills changes and communication technologies…etc.

The survey shows that:

54% of workers are following a hybrid work model;
23% of workers still working remotely full-time, and;
22.9% of workers return to the office full-time.

Compared to the beginning of the epidemic, the report shows only 28% of Australian knowledge workers had the chance to work remotely for any part of the week prior to the pandemic.

This indicates significant growth in hybrid work and shows lots of workers would like to work with hybrid work as it is a flexible work style.

Hybrid work wins as it provides more flexibility

Until today, many places in Australia have adopted flexible working arrangements and the companies have offered different working styles for employees to choose from.

Combine with other reports, the result of the research shows that there are three main types of hybrid work. Moreover, three hybrid work styles individually have lots of supporters:

Fixed days in office: 15% of all respondents said that they need to return to the office on some selected day, such as Monday and Wednesday, and this style is suitable for 29% of hybrid workers.
Fixed office frequency: 13.1% of all respondents said that they have more flexibility than the first style as they can choose which days need to return to the office in a week, and this style is suitable for 24.3% of hybrid workers.
Flexibility to choose: 15.4% of all survey respondents said that they can choose to work where they work and when, and it is suitable for 28.5% of hybrid workers.

Australians: Hybrid work makes us happier, and work more flexibly

According to the national survey, part of the survey asked participants to indicate their satisfaction with their current work arrangement on a five-point scale from “very unhappy” to “very happy”.

Nearly 94% of flexible workers said they were happy or very happy with this arrangement. It is the highest rate compared with 88.5% of workers working remotely full-time, and 70.6% of workers going into the office full-time.

For the question asking participants ideal work arrangements, they are taking care about of having control over the location where they work and when (23.0%), followed by working remotely full-time (22.8%).

Hybrid work benefits for well-being and welfare of workers

30% of workers said they now have a better work-life balance than they did two years ago, compared with less than 8.7% of workers who think it has worsened.

Over a quarter (27.4%) said flexible working time and location provide them with a better work-life balance, so that they can have more time to enhance their life quality and wellness.

Increasing workers’ well-being and welfare

Most of the reports are showed that flexibility is important for taking care of employees’ well-being, and the reason is that it has a variety of advantages. Some of the main benefits are like these:

Increasing employees’ productivity: A hybrid office provides a place that gathers new workers and experienced, therefore the new workers can work with instant help from experienced through face-to-face conversation.
Fostering a sense of belonging to a company: A hybrid office has a co-meeting area, which allows the staff for gathering and meeting. With regular meetings, the new workers have more opportunities to understand the company’s culture.
Retain the talents and have a positive impact on developing a company: If the employees feel happy at their work, they will not resign from their jobs. Therefore, lots of manpower has a positive impact on the development of a company.

What is the requirement to implement hybrid work?

To implement hybrid work, your hybrid office should work with a comprehensive office management system. It allows you to have flexibility at work, which means you can use any available desk, room, and equipment in the office, and work at the location you wanted.

ONES is one of the famous all-in-one smart office systems that can help you to easily implement hybrid working at ease. You can easily perform virtual meetings, desk-hoteling, and digital office management with our Room Booking, Desk Booking, and Visitor Management features.

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