India’s largest IP-driven incubation lab, BridgeLabz recently surveyed its more than 1000 alumni. The online survey theme ‘Challenges faced by engineers working from home’ aimed to understand the relation, if any, between the number of problems and the working experience of the employees. The respondents possessed different levels of working experience in the categories of less than one year, a professional experience between 1 -2 years, and more than five years, representing 47%, 49%, and 4 % of the sample group respectively.
The survey asked if employees find WFH more challenging than working from an office. Irrespective of their professional experience, a majority of respondents across all groups agree being more comfortable with teleworking. While 64% find it easier to work remotely, only 36% of respondents said otherwise.
Trying to balance work at home emerged as the most popular answer when probed about how they are trying to cope up with work from home. Out of the total, 58% of the employees are simultaneously taking part in household chores to strike a healthy work-life balance to deal with the ongoing remote work effectively. 22% of respondents connect with peers, while the remaining 20% take regular breaks to relax.
The survey further revealed that extended working hours are the biggest obstacle for 37% of the workforce during teleworking. It is followed by frequently occurring technical errors and glitches (29%). It is worth noting that employees with more than five years of working experience overall faced more (40%) technical issues as compared to their counterparts. This may be attributed to an irrelevant skillset or lack of upskilling opportunities over the years that could have widened the skill gap for those job roles. Colleagues (20%) and lack of concentration (13%) were some of the other challenges reported by the employees.
Speaking on the survey findings, Narayan Mahadevan, Founder, BridgeLabz said, “The survey speaks out and loud about the issues faced by the global workforce today. What makes it more interesting is that even coders with half a decade worth work experience are struggling with technical issues in the absence of relevant skillset and upskilling opportunities. It is opposed to the general belief that people with non-tech backgrounds are the only one who faces challenges with technology or the digital ecosystem. It shows that the skill gap also tends to grow as you grow in your professional capacity. So undoubtedly, continuous learning and upskilling is the need of the hour for all, no matter what industry or domain you belong to.”
The latest survey aligns with the brand’s commitment to addressing the skill gap of engineers, thereby increasing their employability pool. BridgeLabz conducts time-relevant surveys on its platform to get insights into the minds of the engineering workforce and the biggest challenges faced by them. Based on the results, it actively works towards addressing those issues through its flagship ‘Maker Program’ or by introducing other in-demand skills in its tailored curriculum.
