Uncovering Work

From Home In The

Time Of COVID-19
A deeper insight on how working from home is
working out for Filipino workers
 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Almost everyone’s working from home right now.

With the enhanced community quarantine still in place,

some local companies are still operating through
work-from-home arrangements. In our previous survey
“Work In The Time Of COVID-19”, we found out that 72%
of our clients are now working from home as a measure to
protect themselves from the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is the first time work from home is implemented

widely in the Philippines so we in Sprout set out to pull
back the curtain and uncover more insights about Filipinos
working from home in the time of COVID-19.

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 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Key Findings

1 The following industries have the highest

percentages of people working from
home during the ECQ: BPO (31%),
3 Employees working from home are more
likely to agree that working from home
lets them eat healthier meals and work
Information and Communication (9.79%) out more than before.
and Healthcare (8.51%)

2 In spite of the constraints imposed by the

enhanced community quarantine,
employees who work from home report
4 With zero hours spent on the road,
employees working from home now
report saving up to 2 hours per day.
being highly motivated, well-equipped to
work at home, and able to concentrate
and focus.

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 METHODOLOGY

This report analyzes responses from 9,549

respondents coming from approximately
238 companies of different sizes and
industries in the Philippines.
In order to arrive at a more conclusive data, we excluded
To carry out this survey, we released the questionnaire
data from:
on the Sprout HR dashboard and collected responses
from April 14, 2020 to April 15, 2020. ● companies that report having less than 5 employees
● survey respondents who reported that they are not
We asked the respondents to rate each of the eleven currently working from home
(11) questions we gave them from 1-5: 1 being the the
lowest possible option (“Strongly disagree”) and 5
being the highest (“Strongly agree”).

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 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Which industries are represented?

Top 5 Industries
We’ve broken down the top industries whose
employees report that they are working from
home due to the enhanced community quarantine.

OTHER INDUSTRIES:

Construction and Engineering (4.26%)

Retail & Distribution (3.83%)
Real Estate (3.83%)
Food & Beverage (3.83%)
Arts, Entertainment and Recreation (3.83%)
Manufacturing (2.55%)
Information Technology (2.55%)
Transportation and Storage (1.70%)
Public Service and Social Work (1.70%)
Hospitality & Leisure (1.70%)
Education (1.70%)
Retail, Wholesale and Distribution (1.28%)
Media & Entertainment (1.28%)
General Services (1.28%)
Energy and Utilities (0.43%)

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 DEMOGRAPHICS

Who did we survey?

Gender Age
56 - 70
0.78%

40 - 55
44.5% female 11.86%

24 - 39
77.48%

18 - 23
9.87%

55.5% male

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 FINDINGS

I. Working from home lets respondents

save an average of 2 hours per day.
This means that with the current work from
When we asked our respondents about how much time did
home status, the respondents are saving up
they usually spend cumulatively in traveling to and from
to 2 hours of commuting time daily.
work daily, the answer was 30 mins up to 2 hours.

To put it into a different

perspective, this translates to a
company with a thousand
employees saving up to 1,250
person days every week.

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 FINDINGS

II. Despite not being at their work locations, respondents

are still equipped to operate efficiently.
In our previous report, we found out that 36% of the respondents report that unstable internet
connection is a roadblock to successfully working from home. But despite this finding, majority of the
survey respondents agree that they have the necessary arrangements to work from home.

77% 73%
of respondents report they have of respondents report that they have

sufficient enough levels of information access to everything they need to

security and data protection at home work from home successfully

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 FINDINGS

III. They also have access to the right tools and can
collaborate with their teammates well.
In our previous report, we found out that 29% of the respondents reported collaboration with colleagues as a
challenge while working from home. In this survey, we confirmed that the majority of respondents enjoy a high
level of quality in collaborating with their remote colleagues and, additionally, we found out that they find their
remote work tools easy to use.

77% 73%
of survey respondents report that they find their of survey respondents report that

remote meeting and collaboration tools (ie online they have high quality collaboration

meeting applications, data/file sharing, video with their remote colleagues.

conferencing, etc.) are easy to use.

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 FINDINGS

IV. Respondents are able to maintain

their concentration and productivity
when working from home 72%
Despite the fact that their domestic activities and work of respondents report that they can
activities are now overlapping due to working from home, isolate themselves from domestic
respondents are likely to agree that their personal
activities and distractions when
productivity and concentration are still at sufficient levels.
working at home.

75%
of respondents report that they are
very productive when working at
home

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 FINDINGS

V. Even though they’re working from home

temporarily, respondents are still highly
motivated to work.
Our data suggests that the majority of respondents working from
home are not facing challenges in working from home.

76%
of respondents report that their
employers motivate them to do their
best work despite working from
home

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 FINDINGS

VI. Interestingly, Gen Z respondents

are the least able to concentrate
when they’re working from home. 68%
Focus on your Gen Z team members. As the newest
of Gen Z (ages 18-23) respondents report
members of the workforce, they might be having difficulties that they can concentrate when working
adjusting to the changes and current circumstances.
from home compared to:

73%
of baby boomer respondents

72%
of Gen-X and millennial
respondents respectively

© Sprout Solutions | 11
 FINDINGS

VII. When it comes to their personal

health and overall well-being,
respondents are inclined to believe that
working from home has a positive
impact.
52%
of respondents report that they eat
In spite of the restrictions imposed by the ECQ, which healthier and working out more from
severely limits opportunities for entertainment, fitness, home than they work at their work
socializing and the like, the majority of the respondents still location
find working-from-home beneficial.

68%
Can you imagine what the response would be if of respondents report that working
the ECQ was lifted and life went back to normal? from home is beneficial for their
overall well-being

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 FINDINGS

VIII. Only a minority believe that working

from home has a negative impact on Despite the lack of a physical work
their career opportunities and environment, respondents still view that
recognition. work from home has not drastically
changed their career opportunities and
recognition at work.

17%
of respondents believe that working
at home has a negative impact on
recognition/career opportunities

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 RECOMMENDATIONS

Whether or not the enhanced community quarantine

is lifted soon, we might still be working from home
for a considerable amount of time.

Here’s how you can make work from home work for your company:

1 2 3
Look into employees Find out what those Evaluate how your company
having problems with issues are and determine could potentially mitigate or
working from home the factors address those issues

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 RECOMMENDATIONS

Look into employees having problems with

working from home

Don’t forget to look into the outliers, the employees who report that
working from home is negatively impacting including but not limited
to any of these:
● Motivation
● Concentration
● Productivity
● Health and wellness
● Career outlook

STEP 1 Find out what’s keeping them from maximizing and enjoying
working from home.

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 RECOMMENDATIONS

Find out what those issues are and determine

the factors

For example, if they’re having problems collaborating with

their teammates given the limitations of working from home,
assess where the problem lies.
● Is it with their internet connection?
● Are they having difficulties using their collaboration and
messaging tools?
● Are their existing tools’ features not aligned with what

STEP 2 the team needs?

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 RECOMMENDATIONS

Evaluate how your company could potentially

mitigate or address those issues

Now that you’ve determined what’s causing the issues your

employees have reported, discuss how your company could
address those issues.

For example, if the major roadblock to collaboration is that

their tools don’t have the features they need, consider getting

STEP 3 different collaboration tools for your team.

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 RECOMMENDATIONS

Finally, evaluate how your operations can return

to normal after the Enhanced Community With all of the benefits of
Quarantine (ECQ). working from home highlighted

Go back to your Business Continuity Plan and discuss in this report, you might also

how your company can move forward in the “new consider implementing work

normal” after the ECQ. from home as a permanent

policy.

In our Sprout HR + Legal Experts webinar series, we Sign up for our webinar on designing
discuss post-ECQ business operations planning, and planning your company’s
budgeting and financial forecasting for MSMEs, and the long-term work from home strategy

like. If you’d like to join in on our future webinars, sign up here.

here.

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 ABOUT SPROUT
Find this report useful?
Sprout Solutions is a software company
Discover more insights and best practices on managing aimed at creating paradigm-changing
working from home teams through these resources: solutions for the Philippines.

Our goal is to help companies in the

● Check out our previous report: Work In The Time Philippines grow through our solutions
of COVID-19 that address a variety of challenges in
human resource management: time
keeping, 201, payroll, advanced analytics
● Sign up for our future webinars on working from for workforce management, and
home during COVID-19 here. employee benefits.

Over 422 companies have started their

● Get your personalized company report when you digital transformation by automating their
sign up for our Sprout Rescue Kit here. HR and Payroll pain points.

Allow your HR teams to focus on what they

love doing best: Engaging your employees
to be their best.
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