Work-from-home: a short-term or a long-term productivity solution?
According to the 2018 study by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Philippines loses an estimated USD 3.5B daily due to traffic congestion in Metro Manila. If there is no intervention, the estimated loss in 2035 will be USD 5.4B daily. Try to imagine that over one month — it is more than our 2020 National Budget of ₱4.1T. The Build-Build-Build Program is a good long-term intervention, not just to address this problem but to fuel our economy to grow and compete in the global market. But we need to allocate ₱1T of people’s tax money to fund it every year.
If you are an employee working in Metro Manila, whether you use public transport or your own car, you are most likely contributing to this loss by at least 3 to 4 hours of counter-productivity every day.
For the past two years the Philippine government has sought to give employees the option to work from home, letting employees of private and public organisations avoid the costs and hassles of worsening traffic in urban areas.
Unexpectedly, the COVID-19 pandemic caught everyone unprepared. It crippled our economic life; most industries, large or small, our country and even the world economy continued to plunge. Everybody needed to stop and hide. But as human nature goes, we need to survive. We need to keep going. We need to work so we can have food on our table.
The pandemic has greatly challenged how businesses operate and how displaced workers can continue to work. To keep businesses operational, management needs creativity in letting employees stay productive. This calls for the flexibility to consider a work-from-home scheme. The truth is, this concept is difficult to practise in Filipino culture. Many managers and employees still have the “cat and mouse” mentality — “when the cat is away, the mouse will play.” Trust, or the maturity to perform without being watched, or both, are why this scheme has been unpopular in the Philippine setting.
On March 26, 2019 — a year before the COVID-19 community quarantine — Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III signed DO 202-19 as the IRR of RA 11165, otherwise known as the Telecommuting Act.
What is “telecommuting”? Section 2, par. (b) defines it as a work arrangement that allows an employee in the private sector to work from an alternative workplace using telecommunication and/or computer technologies. Section 3 explains the Telecommuting Program and the guidelines to implement it effectively.
The growing BPO and other technology-dependent service industries also contributed to the worsening traffic in the metropolis — one justification for the Telecommuting Act. Imagine if at least 25% of employees in these industries adopted the program. Yet nobody wanted to pilot it, perhaps because of the traditional Filipino working culture. Business managers had one question in common: “How do we check and validate employee productivity?” Realistically, productivity mattered more to them than traffic — which is why the initiative went to sleep.
Then on March 16, 2020, an unprecedented situation forced everyone to stop and hide. By just stopping, hiding and doing nothing, our businesses would collapse and our economy would die. This is what the common Juan dela Cruz cried: “We might not die of COVID-19, but we will die of hunger.”
The government was quick to see the potential impact on our economy. On March 4, 2020, Labor Advisory No. 9, Series of 2020 was signed as the Guidelines on the Implementation of Flexible Work Arrangements as a Remedial Measure due to the Ongoing Outbreak of COVID-19.
DOLE Labor Advisory No. 09-20: Guidelines on Flexible Work Arrangements
The purpose of the guideline (Section 1) is to assist employers and employees in implementing flexible work arrangements as alternative coping mechanisms and remedial measures — better alternatives than outright termination of employees or total closure of the establishment.
The concept (Section 2): flexible work arrangements refer to alternative arrangements or schedules other than the traditional or standard work hours, workdays and workweek. Later sections explain the options, administration, posting and notices, and monitoring and enforcement.
This once-unpopular concept has become the most practical option for most businesses to start moving and survive.
When the pandemic will end is still uncertain. Waiting and doing nothing will only worsen our situation, so business owners and managers are better off considering a work-from-home scheme.
Employee productivity under this scheme is a challenge for every business manager to solve creatively — not a national economic challenge, but an individual business management challenge.
Employee productivity cannot be measured without data, and you need a tool to capture and analyse it. N-PAX has technology solutions that help businesses capture and analyse data that measures employee productivity:
- HRC Mobile Timekeeping System — captures attendance logs anywhere (for example, at home) using smartphones, tablets, laptops or desktops via the browser, including the employee’s GPS location.
- HRC Man-Hour System — defines employee tasks, man-hour allocations and task schedules for project-based or day-to-day activities, so management can compare actual vs. planned man-hours.
- HRC BI Data Analytics — extracts data from HRC to produce visualisations, demographics and trends for strategic business decisions.
John Maxwell, author of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, says leadership is influence, leadership is trust, and leadership is respect. You cannot influence your people unless they trust and respect you — and they will not, unless you trust and respect them. Productivity flourishes when leadership flourishes.
Is work-from-home a short-term solution? Without a doubt, yes — it helps both businesses and employees stay productive and survive the pandemic.
Could it be a long-term solution? Let’s look at some positive impacts:
- No more 2–4 hours of daily travel — no more stress from traffic jams.
- Travel hours converted into productive time means more output.
- Travel hours converted into family time makes employees happier and more motivated.
- Fewer employees travelling means fewer cars on the street and less traffic.
- Fewer employees in the office means less electricity and utilities consumed.
- Companies may need smaller, cheaper office space.
- When leaders trust their members, members develop into leaders.
- Managers who get creative about business-as-usual in the new normal will find new strategies that make the business more competitive.
- Hiring is no longer limited to metropolitan areas — good talent can be anywhere.
- Lower operating costs mean the business will not just survive — it will be more profitable.
I can imagine at least ten obvious benefits, and I am sure there are more that will make work-from-home not just the new normal but the new best practice. Could it be a long-term productivity solution? I prefer to give it a shot. For me, it is a YES!