Download the PDF version of this report
Introduction
This research report is based on GulfTalent’s survey of 4,000 professionals and 1,000 managers based in the six GCC countries. The report covers the recent developments, challenges, and opportunities that have emerged due to the growing adoption of remote and hybrid work. It aims to provide a clear understanding of current practices and their impact on both employees and businesses. The goal is to help companies as well as policy-makers develop effective ways to harness this trend going forward and optimally shape the future of work in the Gulf.
Key Topics Covered:
Current Remote Work Practices
Adoption Rates
The survey analysed the prevalence of remote work overall and by segment – including by country, company type, industry and job category. Overall, 18% of employees across the Gulf practice some form of remote or hybrid work.
This varies widely across countries. The UAE leads in remote and hybrid work adoption, available to 21% of working professionals. This is followed by Oman and Kuwait at 14%. Saudi Arabia and Bahrain come next with 13%. Qatar appears to have the region’s lowest adoption of remote work, at just 12%.
In terms of company type, startups and multinational companies demonstrate the highest propensity for remote work, with a prevalence of 29% and 28% respectively. At the other end, large private firms and government-owned entities exhibit the least inclination towards such arrangements, with adoption rates of just 12% and 13% respectively.
When assessed across industries, IT and Advertising companies are at the forefront of remote work implementation, in part due to the mainly desk-based, individual nature of their work. Conversely, Construction and Manufacturing companies display the lowest adoption rates due to the inherent operational needs of their industry.
In terms of job category, once again IT and marketing professionals are most likely to work remotely, while lawyers and engineers are least inclined to have this option.
Remote work availability and utilisation remain consistent across all seniority levels. From junior employees all the way to top management, all are almost equally likely to work remote.
In terms of gender, a much higher proportion of female employees report working remote (24%) compared to male employees (15%).
Company Motivations
Surveyed managers cited a number of motivations for offering remote work to their employees – including improved productivity, longer working hours, higher staff retention, and cost savings through reduced rental space.
On the other hand, managers who reported not offering any remote work to employees cited a number of concerns as the basis of their decision. These include concerns about collaboration, productivity, team bonding, and data confidentiality, or the job requiring physical contact and being impossible to perform remotely.
Implementation Practices
For companies offering hybrid work, the biggest question is the extent of remote vs. office-based work. The most prevalent pattern is 2 days of remote work and 3 days in the office. This accounts for almost half of all companies operating a hybrid model.
The survey also analysed the change in the length of the working day when employees work from home. It found that, compared to their office-based peers, employees working from home are less likely to finish work exactly on time and more likely to continue working 1 hour or more beyond their official hours.
Another question facing companies is whether to pay those working remotely the same or a different salary relative to their peers working in the office. Approximately 86% of employees working in hybrid mode believe that they are receiving the same salary as fully office-based workers in similar roles, while 11% believe they are paid less.
Outlook
The survey enquired about companies’ intentions on remote work going forward. This points to a gradual increase in the adoption of remote and hybrid work.
Among firms already offering remote work, 32% plan to expand their remote work policy further, while 13% intend to reduce or potentially eliminate remote work altogether.
These decisions are influenced by the employers’ perception of the costs and benefits of remote work, as well as by labour market dynamics, supply-demand balance within each industry and the relative bargaining power of companies vs. employees.
Impact on Productivity
For jobs that can be performed from home, the main debate has revolved around whether employees are likely to be as productive doing their work from home as they are at the office. The survey has sought to address this by soliciting the employees’ own perception of their productivity at home compared to the office.
Overall Impact
The survey found quite different assessments of remote productivity, based on whether the employee is currently engaged in remote work or not.
On average, among surveyed employees who are working exclusively from their official workplace, a majority believe that they would be less productive if working from home. This pool includes respondents who work from an office as well as other work locations such as retail outlets and construction sites.
On the other hand, among those working in hybrid mode, most feel that that their productivity is higher when working from home.
This can suggest that perhaps employers and managers are, by and large, making the right judgement calls – giving remote work option in industries and roles where the work can be done productively from home, while keeping the staff based at the workplace when the job is more productively performed there.
It should be highlighted that actual productivity may not always match the employees’ perceived productivity. Some international studies which actually measured the output of remote employees have found them to be less than their office-based peers, even when the remote workers themselves reported being more productive at home.
The survey results reveal several factors impacting the home-office productivity gap – including the quality of accommodation, presence of children at home, commute time to work, as well as the nature of the job and amount of collaboration it requires.
Accommodation Quality
By far the biggest factor determining whether employees can work productively from home is the quality of their accommodation. Employees who have a dedicated workspace at home report a net productivity boost from working at home, while those who have to share a room with noisy roommates or family members report a drop in productivity when working at home.
Children
A related factor was parenthood. While employees with children can work productively at home under the right conditions, those without children reported a higher home productivity advantage; 19% compared to 9% among those with children.
Notwithstanding the impact of children, female employees reported a higher home productivity advantage, at 25% compared to 5% for their male counterparts. However, this difference could be due to the nature of jobs prevalent among each gender, rather than the gender itself.
Commute Time
Another significant factor impacting relative home-office productivity is the length of commute time to the office. The longer the employee’s commute time, the greater is their perception that they are more productive when working at home.
Collaboration
The survey found that jobs which are largely solo in nature enjoy the greatest productivity boost when performed at home. By contrast, jobs requiring significant collaboration with colleagues, though still doable remotely, have a substantially lower productivity edge at home compared to the office.
Job Category
Employees in different job categories have significantly different perceptions of their level of productivity gain from working at home. At the top end, marketing professionals report the greatest advantage from remote work, while those in logistics feel the least productivity gain.
It should be highlighted that this assessment is based on employees already working in hybrid mode. It excludes those where the nature of the job makes it impossible to work from home.
Distractions
A widespread concern among some employers is that employee productivity may suffer at home due to distractions which are not available or tolerated at the office.
The survey found that, while many employees working from home do spend some of their time on non-work personal matters, among office-based employees also a similar percentage do engage in such activities.
As per the survey results, top distractions when working from home are family and cooking, while at the office, the top distractions are socializing with colleagues and reading the news.
Interestingly, searching for other jobs during working hours is more prevalent among employees working at the office than those working from home (29% vs. 19%).
Impact on Work-Life Balance
The overwhelming popularity of remote work among employees is based mainly on a perception of improved work-life-balance. This is consistent with the results of the survey.
Overall, employees working in hybrid mode report the greatest satisfaction with their work-life balance, followed by those working permanently remote. Fully office-based employees come a distant third, reporting the least satisfaction.
Not surprisingly, within hybrid workers, the more days of the week they work remotely, the more satisfied they are with their work-life balance.
Commute Time
Similar to the productivity analysis, the biggest boost in work-life-balance is earned by employees with long commute times. Among employees working at the office full-time, the further they live from the office, the less satisfied they are with their work-life balance. By contrast, the satisfaction of hybrid employees remains steady at a high level, no matter where they live.
Accommodation Quality
The degree to which remote work enhances employee work-life-balance is highly dependent on the quality of their home accommodation. The biggest boost is reported by those having a dedicated workspace at home. By contrast, employees having to work from shared noisy rooms report a much smaller improvement in their work-life-balance when working from home compared to being fully office-based.
Working Hours
Both hybrid and office-based employees report a progressive decline in their work-life balance the longer they work beyond their official hours.
However, at any given level of over-time, hybrid employees feel considerably more satisfied than their office-based peers doing the same hours of work. This advantage diminishes when the average over-time exceeds 2 hours per day, with both groups feeling equally low levels of satisfaction.
Staff Retention
The survey gauged office-based employees' willingness to switch employers if offered a remote or hybrid role. An overwhelming 87% expressed their openness to the idea.
Of this figure, 9% were so keen that they would make the switch to hybrid, even if it involved taking a pay cut. A further 70% were willing to switch as long as their current salary was matched, while 8% required a pay increase to consider switching to a remote or hybrid role. Only 13% mentioned that they would not switch to a remote under any conditions, even if offered higher pay.
Employee Engagement & Development
Apart from productivity, other key concerns of employers around remote work have included its impact on the employees’ bonding and engagement with the company, as well as their development and mentoring
Engagement
The survey asked respondents about the extent to which they feel emotionally connected with their employer. There was no significant difference on this metric between those working in the office vs. remote/hybrid workers.
Development
The survey also asked respondents how satisfied they are with their interaction with their managers and the feedback they receive on their work. The results show no adverse impact caused by working in hybrid mode. However, those working permanently remote appear to be at a disadvantage in this regard.
Recommendations for Employers
As demonstrated in this study, remote or hybrid work is popular with large swathes of employees and potentially beneficial to employers. However, for it to be a true win-win formula for both parties, it needs to be offered selectively and implemented effectively.
When to offer remote work
Remote work has the highest positive impact when it brings about the biggest improvement in employee work-life balance, with no adverse impact on productivity. This is most likely when employees have long commute times to work, while having a dedicated quiet workspace available at home, and the job is largely individual with limited collaboration required.
When to avoid remote work
Needless to say, remote work is a bad option for employers, if it results in diminished productivity. This is most likely when employees live in shared rooms or bed space where distraction can be high, or where the job is highly collaborative in nature, requiring frequent team-based collaboration which can be less efficient in a remote setting.
Children are a sensitive topic. On the one hand, employees with children are often the most avid seekers of remote work and receive the most satisfaction from it. On the other hand, employees with small children may need to be individually more disciplined to maintain productivity at home.
How to structure remote work
As per the results of the survey, the optimal remote-work arrangement is hybrid, with some days each week working from the office, rather than full-remote. This arrangement maximizes team productivity by combining the benefits of work-life-balance and home-based productivity, with the collaboration, bonding and personal development that comes from physical interaction at the workplace.
It is critical for the success of hybrid work that employee productivity is monitored and any emerging issues or gaps addressed – whether structurally or at the individual level, as appropriate.
A further question is the compensation of remote or hybrid workers. Companies that offer remote options may be able to attract and retain talent with slightly lower compensation compared to firms that do not offer this flexibility. However, differentiating salary within the same company between hybrid workers and others is a sensitive question and needs to be structured and communicated delicately.
Managing Return to Office
Companies with existing remote work arrangements who plan to shift employees back to the office should do so carefully. By and large, employees are open to returning to work in the office – except those with very long commute times. These are most at risk of leaving or being poached by other employers when forced to work from the office.
Feedback and queries regarding this study can be sent to research@gulftalent.com.