Businesses are increasing salaries and rewarding employees with flexible working, according to a global survey conducted by workplace provider Regus.
Across the 22,000 respondents surveyed (including New Zealanders), Regus discovered that 36 per cent of businesses had increased salaries over the past 12 months.
Almost one in three businesses (31 per cent) has implemented flexible working measures – either in the nature of employees’ working hours, or the locations from which they can operate.
Nick Bradshaw, Regus New Zealand’s Country Manager, believes it’s a tell-tale sign business confidence is on the up which supports the views of NZIER pointing to moderate but sustainable economic growth.
“However, there is a vibrant and confident section of the business community – 48 per cent of businesses report higher revenue and 40 per cent profit growth.
“It makes sense that a confident business will look to reward its employees, and to think about how they can make life better for their staff,” said Mr Bradshaw.
“Traditionally, that has led to financial rewards; however we are now seeing more businesses looking at improving their employees’ work life balance with flexible working arrangements as a way of ensuring a happier workforce.
“Workforces are more stressed than ever,” Mr Bradshaw said. “More often than not an employee will site dissatisfaction or elevated stress levels as a reason for leaving a workplace – you will find it’s rarely about the money.
“So business is looking at when its employees want to work – when is it most convenient for them.
“It’s looking at where they want to work – perhaps it’s not convenient for them to travel to a particular location every day. Maybe it is in ensuring workers have access to the right hardware and facilities while travelling.
“Certainly, we’ve found that our clients are increasingly looking at ways we can help them make life easier for their employees.
“We expect that flexible office spaces are only going to increase in their prevalence – as they allow for complete flexibility in how, when and where people work.
“Across our five facilities in Auckland and Wellington, we are finding more and more workers making use of the access they have to our flexible work spaces in Regus facilities when travelling between the two cities.
“We intend to establish a national network of work spaces over time that will allow even greater flexibility for workers across the country.”
