In the Asia Pacific, the transition to remote work during the COVID pandemic has been more radical and abrupt than in other regions. Whereas the US and EMEA companies were already on the brink of shifting to remote work, 78% of Asian workplaces were in-person only.

Fast-forward to 2022, and we are looking at a new market, with 43% of the workforce facing hybrid work arrangements. Examining the last two years, we can identify the challenges in the sudden transition, lessons learned, and opportunities that emerged.

Achievements of hybrid work: productivity and accessibility

Introducing remote work policies helped APAC companies be more productive. Cutting the time associated with commute was the biggest time-saver, saving employees up to 2 hours a day.

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On top of that, shifting to working from home fueled the decentralisation of incredibly centralised APAC markets.  Before the pandemic, capitals were the beating heart of many regions. After the switch to remote work, more families moved to rural areas where they had access to better air quality, as well as larger and more affordable housing.

Challenges of hybrid work in APAC: distractions and technology gaps

One of the differences between APAC and EMEA or other markets is that not all employees in the Asia Pacific have access to distraction-free work environments.

Shared housing is a trend across the region, thus, remote work made it harder for employees to focus on work due to increased tensions in families caused by forced cohabitation, especially during a pandemic.

On top of that, in some countries in the region, companies struggled to build infrastructures that would support a remote team.

While in Korea or Australia the shift was smooth, in India, the transition brought forth new challenges: local employees were facing connectivity issues and the lack of powerful hardware.

As such, enabling employees with an environment for focused work and supporting them with a reliable tech infrastructure were the key challenges team leaders had to face.

Employee turnover: is the “Great Resignation” coming to APAC?

The “Great Resignation”, a trend of employees changing their jobs many times a year, is changing the face of work in the US and EMEA. In regions like Latin America, up to 70% of employees contemplate a job change within the next 12 months.

In APAC, this trend is often overlooked but the numbers show that Great Resignation is spreading to Asian markets. 57% of respondents in Microsoft’s recent report on hybrid work stated they would change jobs to prioritise mental health. The key reasons why people leave for better workplaces are looking for higher salaries, seeking personal fulfilment, and finding projects with better employee training and engagement.

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While hybrid work may not be able to stop the trend once and for all, it can help slow down the “reshuffle”.

Giving teams the freedom to choose their workplaces rather than constraining them to come back to offices, team leaders put employees behind the steering wheel and allow them to balance commitments.

Besides, hybrid work can help teams improve work-life balance, as most were struggling to do so during the pandemic. Over the last two years, one-third of the APAC workforce felt burned out due to the stress and isolation of full remote work. Being able to interact in an office environment would help teams set boundaries, interact spontaneously and reduce digital fatigue.

Solving the challenges of hybrid work in APAC with technology

The key difference between APAC and other markets is the importance of office-based interactions. For companies in the region, an office is a place for focused work, spontaneous interactions, and seamless performance monitoring.

At the moment, traditional collaboration and video conferencing tools (Microsoft Teams, Slack, and others) don’t meet all needs of APAC teams.

66% of APAC companies surveyed by Google say that they don’t have enough spontaneous interactions and have a harder time collaborating with the rest of their teams.

To solve the problem, team leaders in the regions are exploring virtual offices — 2D platforms where people can interact and stay in touch throughout the workday.

oVice, a virtual office provider based in Japan, has seen a sharp increase in clients from APAC, with large-scale clients from Korea, Vietnam, and other countries setting up spaces on the platform. The company’s clients use virtual offices for day-to-day work, corporate events, and educational workshops.

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oVice helps APAC companies solve connectivity challenges by supporting them with:

• Fast and reliable technology: oVice allows teams with poor network connectivity to stay connected.
• Space for natural interactions: the platform’s range-based audio transmission means that people can join conversations easily and exchange ideas without having to schedule a meeting for every discussion.
• Customizable spaces: team leaders can create office layouts that match brand values and identity, creating a sense of unity and togetherness that teams typically develop in offices.
• Work-life balance: getting into the habit of working only after logging into a virtual office platform makes it easier for employees to separate jobs and personal life.

Two years after its foundation, oVice has become an APAC leader in the virtual office market.

Join the crowd of fast-growing Asian teams using a virtual office by setting up a free trial space on oVice. If you want to see how teams use the platform, visit the oVice tour space.

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