SINGAPORE: Workers in Singapore appear to desire more flexibility when it comes to their jobs, with many believing that their jobs would allow them to relocate abroad, says the People at Work 2023: A Global Workforce View report.
Interestingly, among workers in Singapore in the Media and Information Security sectors, 88 per cent said they held to this view. Almost 30 per cent of the respondents to the People at Work survey said they “assume” working from anywhere around the world is possible due to the flexible working policy of their current jobs. Nearly 25 per cent of them said they know someone among their colleagues who has done just that and are now living elsewhere but are still working for the company, albeit completely remotely.
Almost one in four (24 per cent) of the workers who participated in the study say they have the complete flexibility to choose where they work—either in the workplace, remotely or a mixture of both. While this figure is significantly lower than for Indian respondents (44 per cent), it’s higher than in Australia (20 per cent) and China (16 per cent).
Moreover, over a third of Singapore respondents (34 per cent) expect a hybrid working model to become the norm.
Read also: Studies show that remote & hybrid workers work longer—and harder—than those who go to the office
However, the important thing is for employers to make their policies concerning remote work very clear to their team members.
“Employers must make it clear to workers whether working from abroad is permissible or not, and in what circumstances, and be prepared to deal with any requests to work overseas that may arise,” Yvonne Teo, Vice-President of HR, Asia-Pacific, ADP, is quoted as saying.
She added that there are other important considerations to think of as well. “Given tax and compliance regulations, employers will have to think carefully about whether this is something they would be comfortable allowing. There may be security and logistical issues, such as providing safe access to company networks.”
A study published in July said that jobseekers in Singapore are still interested in working from home. It also showed that employers, however, offer fewer positions involving remote work.
Data from Indeed, a US-based global employment website for job listings, shows that 6.6 per cent of employment postings contained “work from home” or “remote work” in their descriptions in May this year, a figure far lower than in late 2021.
But one out of every 28 job searches still contains references to remote work, keywords that are still among the most popular search terms in Singapore.
Read also: Singapore jobseekers are still looking to work from home, but employers may be feeling otherwise /TISG