60% of millennials seeks flexible working options: Survey

Mumbai (PTI): With the growth of new-age technologies, 60 per cent millennials are seeking flexible working options to maintain work/life balance, a survey has revealed.

About 60 per cent respondents wanted flexible working options to maintain an optimal work/life balance, while 13.88 per cent sought the same to avoid traffic and 6.37 per cent wanted it to save cost of commute by working from home, a survey 'Future of Flexible Working' by job portal Shine.com said. Generally, the term millennial is used to refer to people who reached adulthood around early 21st century.

The survey was conducted with professionals across functional areas including accounts and finance, production and human resources working in full-time jobs. Over 39 per cent of employees mentioned that they would like their organisations to offer flexible working hours every day. Other options like work from home are also important to employees, but only 6.36 per cent are looking for this option every day.

A majority of respondents said they would rather have flexible working hours, the survey said. In fact, 30.98 per cent respondents would like the option to work from home just once or twice a month, the report said. "Of late, we have come across several candidate resumes on our platform that mention flexible working options as one of the top priorities. It is extremely heartening to see that flexible working is being embraced in organizations across industries, as well in traditional functional areas such as accounting and finance," Shine.com CEO Zairus Master said.

However, the survey also revealed that many challenges arise with working remotely, like bosses and colleagues having perception issues. Without any visibility and appreciation for the work that they are putting in from home, such perception issues could bring down employee morale significantly, it added. Another challenge that 22 per cent of respondents faced while working remotely was the inability to stop working even after office hours.

While working from home, employees might end up checking emails, attending calls or completing tasks even after the stipulated office hours. About 17.56 per cent respondents cited the lack of coordination with colleagues as a major challenge in working remotely, it said. Factors like slow data connections or weak phone signals can cause major communication roadblocks for employees working out of the office, it added.