Malaysian employees prefer hybrid work arrangements, spending two to four days in office, as compared to working fully remote or fully in office.
This is the findings of Qualtrics’ 2024 Employee Experience Trends Report, which found that employees in hybrid working arrangements reported the highest levels of engagement at 76%, feeling of inclusion at 73% and 62% of such employees intent to stay three years or longer.
Based on responses from nearly 37,000 employees globally, including more than 500 from Malaysia, all leading employee experience indicators have declined from 2023.
These include employee engagement (76% versus 82%), experience exceeding employee expectations (47% versus 58%), intent to stay (76% versus 82%), inclusion (82% versus 87%), and well-being (75% versus 84%).
Qualtrics XM Institute principal XM Catalyst Cecelia Herbert said the trend is reflected across Southeast Asia highlighted the need for organisations to re-focus towards people-centricity.
“As economies focus on improving productivity, employee experience is one of the most important levers to prioritise.
“There is a well-established connection between employee engagement and organisational performance – from innovation and profitability, through to better customer service and employee health outcomes.
“Organisations that maintain their people-centric focus, and effectively enable their teams to do great work, will be the standout performers in years to come,” she said.
The survey also found more workers in Malaysia open to embracing AI is slightly higher than the global average, with 45% of respondents saying they are open to having AI help them at work, compared to 42% globally.
Workers are more comfortable with AI in the workplace when they have a sense of control over it such as for writing tasks (66% of employees would use AI for this), as a personal assistant (55% of employees), and contacting support functions (51%), the survey found.
However, only 26% Malaysian workers is open to having of their performance appraised by AI Bot while only 37% prefer to receive education from an AI Bot.
Other findings of the survey include frontline employees are unhappy, poorly supported compared to office workers, workers are no longer engaged even on the first year of the job, and are ambivalent to employers listening passively to social media posts for improved employee experience.
