As the coronavirus pandemic begins to settle in China, flexible workplace arrangements that have become prevalent during this time may continue to do so.
LinkedIn data found that users’ search for “telecommuting” rose by 260% over the past two months. Additionally, the number of job applications increased by 39% year-on-year in March and found that SMEs are showing the most enthusiasm in searching for employees. This is a stark contrast to the month prior, which saw job recruitment notices with less than 200 employees fall by 83%.
Using flexible work options, company leaders are able to focus on changing their human resource management models to be more task-oriented rather than attendance-oriented.
“More flexible working hours and telecommuting, which provide employees with more freedom to achieve a work-life balance … will become a trend in the future,” said Lu Jian, president of LinkedIn China. “New technologies, such as virtual reality and artificial intelligence, may empower such a trend.”
Overall, it appears that workplace culture will adopt remote and flexible work options after the coronavirus crisis has settled.