21% Of Singapore Workers Want To Return To Office Full-time

SINGAPORE – A study by JobStreet and Boston Consulting Group showed that slightly 1 out of 5 employees in the city-state prefer to perform their work at the office full-time, while only 8 percent want to work from home (WFH) full-time, reported The Vulcan Post on Monday afternoon (6 March, SGT).

But the majority or 71 percent of the Singapore respondents clamour for a hybrid work arrangement, wherein they can split their work hours in the office and at home.

This is not far from the result for the whole of Southeast Asia, where 11 percent of the surveyed staff want to work remotely full-time, 27 percent prefer to be in the office full-time, while 62 percent favour a hybrid work arrangement.

Globally, 11 percent of the respondents prefer to work from home full-time, 35 percent want to head to the office every workday, while 54 percent seek a hybrid work arrangement.

While the days of managers walking around the workplace to check if the underlings are doing their job may be over, employees are not exactly opposed to going to the office. They understand the importance of physically interacting with workmates and superiors, but they also want to be able to have the versatility to work remotely when they can.

“What the statistics show is that people are saying: ‘I like connectivity. I like being part of the company. I want to participate in the culture in my organisation at work. I just don’t want to be beholden to do that every day,’” explained Peter Bithos, Chief Executive of SEEK Asia, the parent company of JobStreet.

Moreover, the research revealed that 34 percent of respondents in Southeast Asia are actively searching for a new job. The cited reasons are they want a more interesting work, they’re not satisfied with their current compensation, or there’s a lack of opportunities for career progression at their present role.