Covid-19’s curb has been eased and will return to the office on August 19th, but hybrid work will continue, Health News & Top Stories

Singapore-Thursday (August 19th), Singapore relaxes regulations and becomes a company Bring more staff back to the office.

Still, most employers, including Singapore’s largest government, expect hybrid labor arrangements to be a permanent feature of the post-pandemic world.

“Public services are committed to supporting greater work flexibility in post-covid New Normal,” a spokesman for the public services sector told The Straits Times.

“This is aimed at meeting the needs of executives while at the same time balancing the needs of the organization.”

Two weeks ago, the task force of several pandemic ministries announced that working from home would no longer be the default starting August 19.

Instead, up to 50% of employees who can work remotely are allowed to return to the office. This hasn’t been the case since May 8th.

When Covid-19 first arrived in Singapore last year, companies were scrambling to enable hybrid work.

However, after making such an arrangement for over a year, most companies and their staff seem to have found a rhythm.

Law firm Dentons Rodyk said he plans to allow employees to work from home a certain number each week with more flexible reporting times.

At the same time, we are considering making social and cohesive activities mandatory, given that we may not be required to work in the office.

Loh Kia Meng, Chief Operating Officer of the company, said:

Law firms are also planning to implement a “buddy system” to promote greater engagement between colleagues and involve specialized counseling agencies to support the mental health of their staff.

Other companies, including DBS and security provider Certis, said they are redesigning their workspaces to reflect the rising priority, or collaboration.

However, both acknowledge the benefits of working from home, and DBS says it plans to give all employees up to 40% of the flexibility to work from home.

Sodexo, a food and facility management company that helps companies implement incentives to return to work, added that many employers are experimenting with different ideas.

These range from offering relatively basic benefits such as free snacks and office meals to more complex solutions such as having a barista in the office once a week.

“These incentives support employee involvement and enable people to reestablish social connections that they may have lost in the last 18 months,” said Sodexo’s managing director of internal workplace consultant Wx. Jessica Carr said.

Lee Yoonhan, director of human capital consulting at Deloitte Southeast Asia, should keep in mind that employees are likely to have different preferences for returning to the office.

He added that young workers and caregivers, for example, are likely to support the flexibility that remotework allows.

“Companies need to be flexible in their processes and policies to accommodate both ends of the spectrum,” he said. “The option of working from home will be one of the key aspects in attracting and retaining talent.”

Regardless of the arrangement, the employer must speak.

Money from Singapore and Malaysia recruiting firm Randstad Singapore said that if the main reason workers return to the office is to promote collaboration, the physical space and work styles need to be redesigned to reflect this. Jaya Dass, Jing Director, said.

She updated her personnel policy to reflect the new working conditions and suggested conducting regular employee surveys to understand how employees feel about the new model of things. ..

“Employees who come back to the office just to realize they’re back to their way of working will want to know what collaboration means to them,” she added.