A recent survey suggested that, 90% of the citizen want to work from home at Singapore.
University administrator Suzanne Lim has been starting her mornings with an hour-long fitness routine which incorporates a run and a few static exercises, before settling into performing from home.
Before Singapore entered its breaker mode, the 46-year-old had to spend an equivalent amount of your time preparing for work before making her thanks to the office by 8.30am.
She is among the nine in 10 employees in Singapore who want to continue performing from range in some capacity, consistent with a survey of 9,000 respondents from almost 90 companies.
Things employees need to spend more on include electric bills, Wi-Fi boosters and printers.
Mr Harpreet Singh, 37, associate director of the National University of Singapore Overseas Colleges at NUS Enterprise, said performing from home has worked for him as he has greater control over and more flexibility together with his time.
What he enjoys most is having the ability to spend time together with his daughter, aged four, and son, aged one.
“I do miss interacting with colleagues face to face. But I also just like the flexibility that performing from home offers. A balance of both would be good,” said Mr Singh.
The change in employees’ expectations is making companies relook their office space requirements.
Some companies are watching downsizing their physical office spaces and allowing more employees to figure from range in the near term.
Cayman Group Holdings, for instance , is considering downsizing its 600 square foot unit at a co-working space in Tanjong Pagar.
The immigration consultancy firm, which has allowed all employees to figure from home during the breaker as needed by the authorities, thinks it can continue with the present arrangement to save lots of costs.It will still keep a physical office space to “strengthen team bonding for better productivity and communication”, said group director Dainial Sani Lim.
Meanwhile, recruiting agency Cultivar Consulting are going to be downsizing its operations to an industrial estate unit in Pandan Loop in July, after its Shenton Way co-working lease ends, to lower costs.
Managing director Zac Ng said that its commission-based staff are going to be performing from home, while he and administrative staff are likely to be based at the office.
“As long as we’ve an area to figure , the situation doesn’t matter the maximum amount , as our clients don’t usually visit the office,” he said.
United Overseas Bank (UOB), which is reviewing its long-term work plans, said that the times of getting one’s entire workforce being physically present within the office may be a thing of the past.
Around 80 per cent of its employees are performing from home during the breaker period.
Said UOB’s head of group human resources Dean Tong: “We will take deliberate and gradual steps to bring more of our colleagues back to the office. this may be something done over months, not weeks.”
Law firm Dentons Rodyk & Davidson expects to accelerate its move towards flexible work arrangements, starting with no quite 10 per cent of its workforce within the office right after the breaker period ends.
“We definitely expect less time within the office to be a permanent feature of professional life within the future,” said the law firm’s global vice-chairman and Asean chief executive Philip Jeyaretnam.
One of the problems employers got to address is productivity.
work from home at Singapore
The survey about work from home at Singapore showed that productivity has taken successful – two in five employees said it takes them a extended time to realize an equivalent amount of productivity compared with pre-Covid-19 times.
One of the most reasons given for this lower productivity isn’t having the ability to effectively communicate with senior management and not being equipped with the proper tools to figure work from home at Singapore.
Companies can make communication easier by ensuring that employees are clear on expected response times and find out how to use the company’s chosen videoconferencing platform, said Mr Leong Chee Tung, co-founder and chief executive of employee engagement platform EngageRocket.
The ongoing survey by EngageRocket, which started on April 13, is conducted in partnership with the Singapore Human Resources Institute and therefore the Institute for Human Resource Professionals.
“Many have enjoyed the pliability that the arrangement gives,” Mr Leong told The Sunday Times last week. “This whole Covid-19 situation has really opened people’s eyes to the chances of performing from home and this may change things for the company landscape here.”