{"id":785390,"date":"2024-08-03T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-03T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=785390"},"modified":"2024-08-03T07:27:18","modified_gmt":"2024-08-03T05:27:18","slug":"what-employers-in-south-africa-get-wrong-about-work-from-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business-opinion\/785390\/what-employers-in-south-africa-get-wrong-about-work-from-home\/","title":{"rendered":"What employers in South Africa get wrong about work from home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>South African employers may be trying to get employees back to the office, but many are embracing the idea of hybrid work due to its increased work-life balance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is according to PwC&#8217;s latest Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2024 \u2013 African Perspectives report, which surveyed 2,000 respondents from South Africa, Kenya, Morocco and Algeria. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The report showed that 51% of African respondents said that their work can be done from home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">On the hybrid front,&nbsp;<strong>59% of respo<\/strong><\/span><strong>ndents embraced hybrid working models&nbsp;despite many employers&#8217; efforts to bring employees back to the office post-pandemic.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is not the first report to highlight this trend. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The latest Talent Trends report from professional recruitment firm Michael Page shows that employers are increasingly admitting that flexible work and work-from-home arrangements are core to what employees want from their jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although pay is the primary reason why 53% of employees said that they would actively job-seek in the next six months, the number of respondents that saw hybrid\/flexible working arrangements and flexible working hours as core recruitment requirements increased from 20% in 2023 to 30% in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-businesstech wp-block-embed-businesstech\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"Fwy7v5QrRW\"><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/782372\/employees-are-winning-the-work-from-home-war\/\">Work-from-home war &#8211; employees are winning<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Work-from-home war &#8211; employees are winning&#8221; &#8212; BusinessTech\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/782372\/employees-are-winning-the-work-from-home-war\/embed\/#?secret=K2l4yRo3tA#?secret=Fwy7v5QrRW\" data-secret=\"Fwy7v5QrRW\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>PwC said that employers must understand that flexibility helps employees maintain their work-life balance, allowing them to stay motivated and focused at work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;As more companies ask employees to return to the office (because they consider workers more productive and engaged in the office), this return-to-the-office shift presents a challenge to the idea of flexibility for employers and employees,&#8221; said PwC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The push for greater work flexibility comes amid a tough economic climate for African workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The PwC showed that only 29% of African employees can pay their bills monthly, compared to 45% globally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>45% of the African workforce said they have little to nothing left over for savings, holidays and extras.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That said, overall job satisfaction increased among Africa&#8217;s workforce from 55% in 2023 to 59% in 2024, with exposure to specialised training being a contributing factor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On a very positive note, 90% of African respondents feel a sense of confidence in their job security over the next year despite some anxiety relating to the volume and speed of change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Workers also prioritise skill development opportunities when declining to stay with their current employer (56% compared to 46% globally), with 22% saying performance-based pay would improve their job performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, 65% still feel that they waste time on administrative tasks, which leads to feelings of underutilisation, overload, frustration and inefficiency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, 57% of African respondents believe that the risks associated with climate change will pose substantial health and safety risks to their jobs &#8211; higher than the 44% globally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThese results tell of an African workforce changing to become more employee-centric. For a large majority of respondents in Africa, the nature of their work impacts their overall happiness,&#8221; said Marthle du Plessis, PwC Africa Workforce of the Future Platform Leader. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We have observed that the risk of burnout is high, with over half of the African workforce reporting significantly increased workloads in the past 12 months.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>`&#8217;This surge appears to be driven by a few things, including major changes in daily roles and responsibilities, a need for training on new technologies and structural team changes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>What employees need <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Employees are also heavily scrutinising how well their organisation looks after its people and doing the right thing by society. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Respondents want to work for employers that show that they care and want the organisations they work for to live up to their purpose, values and culture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAt the heart of it, when employers try to meet employee needs, employees will try to meet<br>employer needs,\u201d said Dr Dayalan Govender, PwC Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEmployers need to rethink the concept of the traditional employee to attract and retain the skills and talent needed for organisations to succeed in today\u2019s complex environment.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;To stand out\u2014now and in the future\u2014employers must provide an exceptional life experience with purpose and their people at heart. It will take this to win and retain the best talent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/785041\/what-you-need-to-earn-to-send-your-kids-to-the-best-performing-private-schools-in-south-africa\/\">What you need to earn to send your kids to the best-performing private schools in South Africa<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new report from PwC shows the benefits that employers can gain by allowing their employees to have better work-life balance. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":785410,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,12787,2407],"class_list":["post-785390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-opinion","tag-headline","tag-michael-page","tag-pwc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=785390"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":785480,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785390\/revisions\/785480"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}