Goodbye office: Is the future of work in our homes?
SINGAPORE: Wanting to create a parent-friendly workplace, Ms Joerin Yao, managing director of human resources consultancy Enable Grouping, has been allowing employees to work from home since the business started seven years ago.
But telecommuting was largely unheard of back in 2022 and some likened the idea to "giving people time off for no reason", Ms Yao recalled.
Fast forward to 2022 with the earth in the midst of a global pandemic, and working from dwelling is no longer an alien concept.
In Singapore, many companies and workers accept done so for nearly ii months since a "circuit billow" shut downwards non-essential workplaces. For most, the experience is a first and consultants similar Ms Yao take been decorated helping firms to navigate the shift.
Through the procedure, some are seeing proof that the thought of working from dwelling may not necessarily mean time off or less work done.
"This pandemic has accelerated a change in perception in employers," said JLL Asia Pacific's chief enquiry officer Roddy Allan. "Some have become more accepting of remote working."
A growing list of major firms, such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, Mastercard and Shopify, are now planning a permanent shift to remote working even after dangers of COVID-19 fade and cities lift shutdowns. For instance, Twitter has given the get-alee for its employees to work from home "forever" if they wish and Shopify's CEO said "office centricity is over".
Does this mean that work from abode is here to stay?
GOODBYE OFFICE, FOR At present?
The respond seems to be yes, at to the lowest degree in the near term.
Apart from changes in some employers' attitudes, there are more than practical reasons.
For one, authorities have signalled that work-from-domicile arrangements must continue even if Singapore exits the circuit breaker as planned on Jun 1, so as to minimise the gamble of community spread.
"We wait the vast majority of the workforce to go on to work from abode," National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said in a Facebook mail service on May 23, while urging employers to arrange their mindsets and embrace telecommuting as the "new normal".
If not, employers must ensure safety measures such as practiced ventilation and hygiene standards, equally well as having workers seated apart, are put in place.
READ: Employers must adjust mindsets, embrace working from abode every bit new normal: Lawrence Wong
Complying with these norms volition incur costs – a move that most firms volition want to avert in anticipation of a prolonged economic slump, experts said.
"For companies that want to have all staff physically present at work, they will need to weigh the costs and benefits as they will accept to increase office area or location to comply with safety distancing measures," said Ms Linda Teo, the land managing director of ManpowerGroup in Singapore.
"Simply this may not be prudent as well-nigh employers are trying to contain costs and bulldoze revenue now."
"The expected cost pressures that organisations volition be under mail service-COVID-19 may increase the appeal of maintaining an element of remote working," echoed CBRE Singapore'southward managing director Moray Armstrong.
Global engineering firm HP said it sees the benefits of flexible work and had, even prior to the pandemic, rolled out work-from-habitation policies at its Singapore role. In fact, "most" of its staff were already based at habitation earlier the circuit breaker, said Ms Vivian Chua, HP'south managing director in Singapore.
The firm, which employs more than than 3,000 people in Singapore, does not expect a return to the traditional way of doing things immediately after the excursion breaker.
"As we make plans to somewhen return to work, nosotros anticipate this will be a gradual process as we prioritise the well-being of our people and the communities that we serve," Ms Chua said.
READ: Commentary: COVID-xix is reshaping what work looks similar
It is a like strategy over at confectionery giant Mondelez International, which has an part in Harbourfront and a technical center in Jurong.
Near all of its office-based staff take been working from home since March, while a "pocket-size squad" involved in laboratory piece of work and the running of its cocoa processing plant is immune to return to the heart in Jurong with the recent easing in restrictions.
"Every bit we plan our return, we won't go to having 100 per cent of our colleagues in the offices and technical centre directly abroad but will utilise a phased approach developed to safeguard our colleagues' health," said executive vice-president and president of Asia, Center Due east and Africa (AMEA) Maurizio Brusadelli.
Information technology'South Non FOR EVERYONE?
But in the long run, firms and employees might prefer existence back in the office, co-ordinate to the experts that CNA spoke to for this article.
"Although the pandemic has shifted perceptions around the effectiveness of remote working, it is not for everyone," said Mr Allan.
"Working from home has worked to a large extent during the pandemic, considering it has had to work. That does not mean information technology presents a sustainable and optimum long-term solution for all corporates."
Ms Yao, an early on advocator of working from home, shares the same view. Not all jobs can exist done from home, she explained, citing her clients in industries such as retail, food services and transportation.
She as well reckons that small-scale and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will notice it difficult to embrace telecommuting, with reasons ranging from a lack of infrastructure to "multi-dimensional" task roles.
An accountant in a typical SME, for example, may also exist overseeing facilities management which can but exist done on site. "When the role is broader than what information technology's supposed to be, SMEs may not know how to scope it for a home-based environment," said Ms Yao.
An part culture that prefers "more than directly interaction and line of sight" could also stand in the manner, and changes will take time.
"If I accept to speak from the perspective of the SMEs, two months won't be enough to change their mindsets," said the human resource consultant, adding that while SMEs may exist open to staggered work hours or split teams, they are unlikely to fully embrace work from home.
Meanwhile, offices are more than just a place for work. They fulfill human needs for social interactions and for some, serve as "a badge of honour" that provides purpose, according to experts.
Dr Sam Yam, assistant professor of direction and organisation at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School, said: "People who say offices are no longer important are coming from a business operation perspective. From a psychological perspective, the social interaction you get from going to an office is what humans require to be functional and psychologically well."
Firms like HP have rolled out initiatives to help employees stay connected.
It had a "HP Print, Play and Learn" initiative for employees to download craft projects to piece of work on with their children or with other employees. HP as well partnered DreamWorks Blitheness to roll out pic nights and held a dance political party for its offices around the world terminal month.
Only experts like Dr Yam do not recall that engineering can fully replace face-to-confront interaction.
Diverse surveys thus far have showed different perspectives towards working from home.
While a joint study last month by EngageRocket, the Institute for Homo Resources Professionals and the Singapore Human Resources Found plant eight in 10 employees hither wanting to go along working from home subsequently the circuit breaker, another recent survey past research firm Forrester threw up some mixed feelings.
Forty-six per cent of those polled past Forrester in late-Apr said they adopt telecommuting, a drop from threescore per cent in an earlier survey done a month ago. On the other hand, more people said they could not expect to go back to the office, an increase from 34 per cent to l per cent.
READ: Commentary: Do you really want to piece of work from home forever like some Twitter employees can?
Some reasons for the change in sentiment include difficulties in managing work and family unit, especially parents who take to supervise their children'southward learning, every bit well as a lack of proper workspaces at abode.
Work from habitation besides works better for some personalities, observed human resource experts who noted feedback from some people well-nigh meliorate work-life remainder. Yet, there are others who have clocked longer working hours as the lines between piece of work and dwelling go blurred.
SO WHAT'South THE Hereafter OF Piece of work Similar?
Equally companies attempt to strike a balance between well-being and work productivity, there seems to exist no one style out and the future is shaping up to be a "hybrid" model, experts said.
Mr Armstrong thinks companies will likely have split teams – one working remotely and the other being based in the office, or in some cases a hybrid group that volition split time between the role and home. This could mean two trends in terms of office strategies, with one being a "hub-and-spoke" model.
"This is where the visitor will have a customer-facing role and another office in, most likely, suburban areas, where the support departments would operate from," said Mr Armstrong, noting that this is already existence adopted by big firms to "equalise rents".
Otherwise, firms could opt for a "core-and-flex" model where the main team heads to a permanent function and teams that are more mobile, such every bit sales, report to co-working spaces when required.
READ: Commentary: COVID-nineteen has stripped piece of work to bare basic - was all that excess needed anyway?
Mr Allan said the style people view and employ corporate real estate will change.
"CEOs will rightly re-examine business models. They will also be discussing the level to which they may consider recalibrating the amount of space dedicated to traditional leased office space upon lease expiry, or fifty-fifty earlier."
Autonomously from the amount of space or office locations, companies will also be looking at re-designing or re-purposing office spaces. This could include taking away desks to space out work areas, or converting them into wellness spaces or collaborative areas with tele-conferencing facilities so as to enable collaboration.
IMPLICATIONS ON RENTS, PEOPLE
Against the backdrop of a weak economy, demand for function space will remain subdued which ways that office rents are set to face downward pressure for this twelvemonth.
Mr Armstrong from CBRE expects Grade A office rents in the Central Business organization District (CBD) to decline past up to 13 per cent this yr, given the confluence of negative factors such as a recession, corrections in the stock market and chore losses.
Will this also hateful changes itinerant in the CBD? Acquaintance Professor Sing Tien Foo, managing director of the NUS Institute of Real Estate, said if businesses adjust their office space footprint after the COVID-19 outbreak blows over, landlords may be pressed to human activity.
"We may run into the transformation of the CBD from a single-use district dominated past office utilise to a more diversified and mixed-use commune," he wrote in a commentary.
READ: Commentary: COVID-19 will reshape the Singapore role property marketplace outlook
Homo resource experts like Ms Teo said firms will also have to revise their staff engagement policies if any form of remote working is to be continued. They can, for instance, consider issuing a "work-from-dwelling house allowance" to assistance workers with higher electricity and mobile bills due to telecommuting.
How employees are assessed will as well have to be reviewed. Dr Yam said managers will have to be witting of the bias that working from home means less productivity, while Ms Yao said trust between employers and employees is primal.
HP said its managers take had regular check-ins with their teams to talk about piece of work goals and challenges. Focus groups are as well organised for employees to share their thoughts on how to amend work-from-domicile environments and kickstart thought processes around returning to the office in the immediate hereafter, said the company's caput of homo resources in Singapore Shelly Rajpal.
Over at DBS, its managers accept received guidance on how to meliorate appoint their teams remotely, including actionable tips on building team morale.
Mondelez International is closely monitoring global trends and will make adjustments when necessary.
Its CEO Dirk Van de Put said recently that the company is looking for efficiencies, after the COVID-19 crisis showed different ways of work. "Maybe we don't need all the offices that we currently have around the world," he had said.
Asked what that ways for the company's plans in Singapore, Mr Brusadelli said early feedback from its employees about work location preferences take been "varied".
"But it'south a chat that we want to explore further … What'due south the level of involvement? Does the legislation allow for information technology? What people processes do we demand to have in identify and how practice we keep engaged and connected when nosotros aren't confront to confront?
"Any changes to how we piece of work would influence what our function of the future might look like."
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/business/goodbye-office-work-from-home-future-covid-19-193576
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