Study: Most businesses to cut costs with flexible work conditions

Reducing office rental and utilities will be part of measures, with staff working from home or just anywhere, according to survey by Regus.

GEORGE TOWN: Most businesses in Malaysia are looking to reduce their costs by cutting down on office expenditure and allowing staff to work from home or anywhere they like.

This is the finding of a survey by international office services provider Regus.

Regus Malaysia country manager Vijayakumar Tangarasan revealed a snippet of the survey today, saying that as many as 56% of businesses, especially small-medium enterprises (SMEs), want to grow their outfits minus the burden of an office lease.

He said with the rise of the digital workforce, the survey also found 42% of Malaysian businesses acknowledge their workers are keen to work at home or closer to home.

“The global mobile workforce is set to increase to 1.75 billion in 2020, accounting for 42% of the global workforce, so much so that mobile working will become the norm.

“This will be no different in Malaysia. We see a trend in the rise of the digital workforce who prefer to work seamlessly across locations.

“More companies in Malaysia are considering flexible work arrangements, such as working out of their offices, as the value of this work style has been proven to increase performance,” he told reporters here today.

Vijayakumar said this after the opening of Regus’ third flexible work spaces in Malaysia here today.

The workspaces, dubbed the Regus Business Centre, was opened by Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng at Wisma Boustead in George Town today.

Regus will also open another business centre in SPICE Arena, which is close to the Penang International Airport soon, bringing its total investments in Penang to RM9 million.

The new two centres will bring Regus’ presence in the country to 30.

Vijayakumar said Regus’ expansion was due to its faith in Penang, as its economy was fast growing, especially in the shared services sector or Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector.

“We think our presence here will help drive more investors into the state, especially through the BPO industry,” he said.

Regus began operations in Malaysia in 1999 and currently boasts of 30 centres in Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya, Shah Alam, Kota Kinabalu and Penang. -FMT