Push for flexible work comes amid employees' 'evolving preferences'
The Philippine government is pushing for the adoption of alternative work arrangements in the wake of employees' evolving preferences as part of its measures to improve the labour market.
The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said last week that a multifaceted approach is needed to ensure an efficient labour market.
"The government needs to facilitate the adoption of alternative work arrangements to account for workers' evolving preferences while considering organisations' emerging demands," said NEDA Secretary Arsenio Balisacan in a statement.
The secretary did not elaborate on what he meant by alternative work arrangements, but the Philippine government passed in 2018 a Telecommuting Law that provided a definition for it.
"Alternative workplace refers to any location where work, through the use of telecommunication and/or computer technology is performed at a location away from the principal place of business of the employer," read the revised implementing rules and regulations in the Telecommuting Law.
The Civil Service Commission (CSC), the central HR agency of the Philippine government, is already implementing a hybrid work arrangement for its Central and Regional Offices.
Under the arrangement, all CSC officials and employees in these offices are encouraged to observe Friday as a uniform remote day.
"We are optimistic that this policy will uplift the morale and boost the productivity of CSC employees by providing reasonable work arrangements that facilitate work-life balance," said CSC chairperson Karlo Nograles in a statement.
"Additionally, we hope this will inspire other government agencies to appreciate the benefits of a hybrid work setup in driving employee well-being and performance."
The CSC's efforts come as data from JobStreet revealed that Filipinos are more likely to stay with organisations that offer flexible work options, such as work-from-home or hybrid work, Business World reported.
However, the data also noted that Filipino employees prefer the traditional full-time, five-day work week.
This is a shift from Milieu Insight findings in 2022 which found that 74% of Filipino employees want a compressed four-day work week policy applied in their workplace.
Flexible work arrangements remain popular across the world after these work models surged during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Singapore, the government there recently mandated employers to formally consider employees' requests for flexible work arrangements.
