Fun Friday: What's your workplace persona?

Are you the networker, the expressionist, or the road warrior? Or would you fancy yourself to be either the detective or the problem solver? See what resonates with you best.

A recent global survey commissioned by Slack delved into workplace diversity, worker preferences, and technology adoption, shedding light on the impact of these factors on desk workers and AI usage.

In the survey of more 15,000 desk workers across nine markets — the US, UK, France, Germany, India, Japan, Australia, Singapore, South Korea — conducted by YouGov, respondents were asked a series of questions and categorised into five distinct workplace personas:

• The detective,
• The road warrior,
• The networker,
• The problem solver, and
• The expressionist.

 The personas were defined as follows:

The detective

Detectives, as per the findings, are driven towards searching or finding solutions, answers, information; and sharing with others. In addition, detectives are curious by nature, are outcomes-driven, always in the know and reliable, and are self-starters.

The road warrior

Road Warriors are always working from various places at varying hours consistently and are skilled at forming relationships with anyone both remotely and virtually. Characteristically, road warriors are known to be outgoing, affable, adaptable & flexible, and are eager to use modern workspace tools.

The networker

The networker is the most communicative and sociable of the five personas. They are known for being highly collaborative, extroverted, and prefer face-to-face interaction.

They also enjoy taking notes and sharing them with their peers, ensuring that each person is well-informed.

The problem solver

Those that fall under this persona are known to obsess with saving time and being more productive. These people, as per the survey, are most likely to get their hands intertwined with AI.

Problem solvers are also notorious for having a work hack for everything as they avert from repetitive tasks.

The expressionist

These group of employees communicate through emojis, gifs, memes. They are social, witty, and clever.

Apart from the above, the survey also noted the following key takeaways:

• Among the respondents, 26% of the most frequently found persona is the road warrior. Their most common traits include working away from their desk (91%) and working wherever they want in a way that fits their schedule (46%).
• In Singapore, fewer detectives (21%) are reported, in comparison to their global peers (30%). This can be explained by Singapore’s comparatively younger workforce and found to be more common amongst the older workforces, it was highlighted.

In terms of AI usage, Singapore workers rank the second highest globally, at 34%, falling behind India (54%). However, 80% of workers globally, are concerned about AI and 73% do not feel that their company is doing enough to address the issue. In fact, with the introduction of new technological advancement, the detectives and road warriors feel unsupported, of which 15% of each group globally feel their company provides little to no training or information.

Commenting on the above, Derek Laney, Slack Technology Evangelist, APAC, Salesforce, said: "With Singapore’s culturally diverse workforce, recognising these differences is vital for businesses that want to provide a truly empowering environment for their staff.

"No two employees work exactly alike, leaders must embrace a flexible management approach and versatile technologies so people can play to their unique strengths at work," he added.

Photo: Provided