MORE than half of Filipino employees preferred to work onsite or in a hybrid arrangement, now that the Covid restrictions have been relaxed, a survey conducted by the health maintenance organization Philcare showed.

Philcare said 35 percent of those surveyed said they preferred to work entirely onsite, while 25.2 percent said they favor a hybrid setup where they would spend more work hours in their offices than at home.

The survey found that 16.3 percent prefer working from home, while only 8 percent prefer a hybrid setup where they would work at home more often than onsite.

The results were different from Philcare’s September 2021 poll, where nearly five out of 10 respondents preferred to work onsite, 19.6 percent chose to spend more hours working onsite than at home, and 13.9 percent wanted to work exclusively from home.

Philcare President and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Agustin Tanco said the work-from-home setup may not work for some industries, while some employees may also find the pre-pandemic work arrangement more suited to their work temperament.

“It’s best when we listen to our employees when we make decisions that impact them. If there is anything salient that businesses learned during the pandemic, it is that we have to be flexible to accommodate both the current and emerging needs of our business,” Tanco said.

Management must have the discretion to determine which work arrangement is ideal for the nature of their operations by using empirical data rather than tradition.

In the same survey, more than half of the respondents said getting exposed to Covid-19 and the need to take care of personal and family needs remain their main concerns as they return to the workplace.

The survey also found that 44.5 percent said their workplace has a good system in place to ensure they are safe from the pandemic, while 42.6 percent agreed that their workplace needs a comprehensive health care program to address Covid-related issues.