1 in 3 Indians saving up to Rs 5K a month due to work from home: Survey

Mumbai: At least one in three persons (29 per cent) employed in urban cities in India are saving Rs 3,000-Rs 5,000 on an average in a month as a result of working from home, which was otherwise spent on commuting, clothing and food in the normal scheme of things, a new survey said on Tuesday.

While 74 per cent of the respondents in the online survey said they are willing to work remotely, 80 per cent pointed out that their job roles can be performed from a remote environment, according to the survey from Awfis, India's largest homegrown flex workspace provider.

The survey was conducted over a period of two months (June and July) across seven metros and analysed inputs from 1,000 employees across diverse industries.

While 47 per cent employees reported a lack of comfortable desk and chair, 71 per cent said that they will be successful in working from home if they have a dedicated area to work from.

Nearly 60 per cent of employees usually spend more than an hour commuting to and from the office. Owing to work from home, on average, an employee saves 1.47 hours of travel time daily -- translating to time worth 44 additional working days in a year, the findings showed.

"To be effective, organisations across diverse industries need to understand the changing requirements and challenges faced by their employees and provide them with the required resources," said Amit Ramani, CEO and Founder, Awfis.

The positive sentiment to work from remote locations can be attributed to factors like significant cost savings, considerable time savings, better time management and self-discipline. Nearly 27 per cent of the employees felt they lack opportunities for engaging with colleagues and developing strong networks.

"A combination of virtual and physical environments will come to define the future of how India works, thereby giving rise to the emergence of distributed workspaces that will cut across physical headquarters, satellite offices and homes pan-India," the survey said.

For example, a company with a strength of 100 employees will follow a 60/30/10 split for deciding the work location (work from home, work near home or work from the main office).

The co-working sector is poised to become 20 per cent of the total commercial estate market (CRE) market in the next two-three years, as compared to the current five per cent.

"By means of this survey, we were able to deconstruct the employee perspective and share critical insights that would help managers and organisations in devising sustainable remote working strategies," Ramani said.