Hybrid Work - The New Standard for South African Employees

Despite company efforts to repopulate office spaces in South Africa, fewer than half of South African workers have resumed full-time office work, indicating a persistent shift towards hybrid and remote work models. These findings, as revealed by the latest BrandMapp 2023 survey, underscore a significant transformation in the employment landscape following the Covid-19 pandemic.

The realities of work life have undergone substantial changes since lockdowns were first imposed. The survey, involving 35,000 respondents representing the 'mid-market-and-up', highlights the preferences of the country's taxpaying segment towards work location. Only 47% of these workers have returned to the office, whereas the remaining 54% are either embracing the hybrid model or working strictly from home. This trend cuts across most sectors but is notably less evident in provinces with industries less conducive to remote work, such as mining and agriculture.

The evolution towards remote and hybrid work arrangements has implications far beyond individual companies or industries. It's reshaping daily patterns in traffic, retail, and the service economy, with wide-ranging ripple effects on the South African socioeconomic fabric. As per the BrandMapp research, knowledge workers and those at executive levels have shown a stronger inclination towards hybrid arrangements, due largely to the nature of their work that allows for flexibility.

It's not just about where people work but also how they work. Hybrid policies have emerged as a powerful tool for recruiting and retaining top talent. BrandMapp's director of storytelling, Brandon de Kock, emphasizes that this work arrangement has become particularly entrenched among the nation's moderate to high earners. These employees, traditionally more self-managing and autonomous, have discovered an appetite for the autonomy and flexibility that hybrid or remote work offers.

This ongoing preference for hybrid work seems to be stabilizing into a 'new normal'. The consistency of these findings from 2022 to 2023 suggests that a return to the pre-pandemic office-centric model is unlikely. The persistent appeal of working from home, at least part-time, points to a reevaluation of working norms and a possible permanent shift in the work environment.

As South African companies continue to cope with this shift, there will likely be a need to recalibrate office use, infrastructure, and management strategies to support the changing work modalities. It illustrates, profoundly, how the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of flexible work arrangements and how these trends are becoming entrenched in the work habits of a significant part of South African society.