Working From Home is Not the Norm in KSA and UAE

The new millennium has witnessed a great deal of technological advances; the rise of the smart phones, tablets, higher speed Internet connection and a dependency on online communications. Corporations have been adapting to these technologies and a rise of work at home polices came with it. Still almost every workday for most employees starts the same way, by getting ready to go to the office. In Europe and the USA the concept of working from home is on the rise but here in the Gulf the need for office hours still holds strong. At YouGov we decided to survey employees asking them whether they see this trend reaching the region. A total of 1371 in the UAE and KSA responded to our survey to share their views.

• 80% of respondents say they are familiar with the work at home corporate policy.
• Even with today’s technologies, only 37% of respondents think working from an office is no longer necessary.
• 43% of all respondents say productivity will not decrease from adopting a work at home policy.
• 60% of all respondents think that companies and corporations should adopt some form of work from home policy.

While 80% of respondents said they were familiar with the work at home corporate policies, only 37% said that with new technologies office hours are no longer necessary. When asked about the reasons behind their support for working at home 45% claim that they could do the same amount of work from home as long as they have an Internet connection. Wasting time getting to and from work and focusing better at home were also some of the main reasons behind respondents’ support of work at home at 28% and 23% respectively.

Still, 63% of respondents find it absolutely necessary to work at an office. With 45% saying that there are situations where direct contact is needed, while another 43% say that working at an office is important to maintain a team feeling. Respectively 23% and 17% stated trusting that employees are putting the proper amount of time for work and todays’ technologies being unreliable, as secondary causes not to work from home.

When asked about whether working from home would decrease productivity almost half 43% said No. Another 60% of all respondents think that companies and corporation should adopt some form of work from home policy.