Pinoy employees happiest when left to their own personal devices, says study

MANILA, Philippines - The “work hard, play hard” mentality of Pinoys has been found to extend to their personal portable devices such as smartphones, tablets and laptops, according to a new research commissioned by the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, VMware  Inc.

The VMware New Way of Life study highlights the work-style and lifestyle habits of an increasingly mobile Pinoy workforce in the post PC era.

Conducted for the first time in the Philippines, the study reveals that younger employees are driving the changing patterns of technology usage in the workplace, with 75 percent of those responding to the study classified as millennials or those under the age of 34.

“We are experiencing a technology revolution that is being dictated by the demands of an increasingly young, connected, and vibrant Philippines society,” said Emmanuel Portugal, country manager, VMware in the Philippines.

“This new way of life holds positive productivity implications for employers that adopt more flexible IT policies, but also brings with it very real concerns around ensuring corporate data security and compliance as well,”he added.

The New Way of Life study was commissioned by VMware and conducted by Acorn Research.  It surveyed over 2,100 people in 12 countries across Asia-Pacific, including 150 respondents from the Philippines in 2013.

Pinoy employees taking IT into their own hands

According to the VMware New Way of Life study, the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) movement is prevalent in the Philippines. According to the study, 81 percent of respondents own two or more personal devices, and 85 percent of respondents bring these devices to work. 

By bringing their own personal devices to accomplish their work, the majority agreed that they are: more efficient working out of the office (80 percent); faster to respond to change (74 percent); and  less stressed (74 percent).

The study also shows that  93 percent of end users say their IT department is aware that they bring their own devices to work. However, only three in 10 people (32 percent) receive IT support to work on those devices.

Where corporate IT support was found lacking, 41 percent of respondents say they will continue to use their own technology to do their work. In fact, three in five employees (60 percent) say they will either troubleshoot issues on their own, and one in two (52 percent) will rely on search engines like Google to find ways to integrate their choice of technology into the workplace.

“The undeniable call to action for companies in the Philippines is to adapt to the personal needs of our young workforce by modernizing IT policies to enable the next generation mobile worker without compromising risk, security and/or compliance to the organization,” added Portugal.

The study also reveals that using their choice of technology for work is about much more than just preference for employees – it is about employee satisfaction and talent retention too.

It said that  75 percent of employees say they value technological mobility in their role. When allowed to use their personal portable devices at work, seven in 10 respondents say they are happier in their role (73 percent); and  believe such companies are more progressive and dynamic, and would be their employer of choice (71 percent).

“The floods that swept the Philippines last year are a great example of why it is important to empower employees to work flexibly in their own time, anywhere and from any device. By taking advantage of virtualization and cloud computing to modernize their IT policies, companies can effectively manage employee access to corporate applications and data whilst ensuring that sensitive information is kept confidential,” said Portugal.

In a separate statement, VMware unveiled the VMware Horizonâ„¢ Suite, the industry’s most comprehensive platform for workforce mobility.  The suite, consisting of VMware Horizon Workspaceâ„¢, VMware Horizon Viewâ„¢ and VMware Horizon Mirageâ„¢ simplifies end-user computing and empowers workforce mobility that connects end-users to their data, applications and desktops on any device without sacrificing IT security and control.

The survey was conducted in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. Indonesia and Philippines were added to the VMware study in 2013.

VMware is the leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable businesses to thrive in the cloud era. With 2012 revenues of $4.61 billion, VMware has more than 480,000 customers and 55,000 partners. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com.