61% Of Standard Chartered’s Singapore Staff Chose To Work Partly In The Office
SINGAPORE – In a bid to strike a good balance between telecommuting and working from the office, Standard Chartered revealed that more than 61 percent of its local employees decided to work from their office two to three days per week, reported Hubbis on Monday (6 June, SGT).
This comes after the multinational bank announced that 83 percent of its qualified Singapore staff were placed on an industry-first mover flexible working arrangement scheme dubbed as the “Future Workplace, Now” (FWN).
Notably, the FWN programme was piloted in Singapore alongside eight other key markets in its first phase during the first quarter of 2021. Its objective was to give Standard Chartered’s employees the autonomy to decide their most efficient and sustainable way of working,
Under the scheme, the bank’s staff have the flexibility to choose to work from home (WFH), report to the office, or work at any Singapore outlet of coworking space operator IWG, if their roles permit for them to do so.
To facilitate this hybrid working arrangement, Standard Chartered shouldered nearly S$7 million in costs in April 2021 to help its Singapore employees equip their home offices via a one-time net payment of approximately S$1,000 per qualified staff.
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of the workplace has changed from a space to perform work duties to a hub for socialisation and collaboration.
Interestingly, Standard Chartered has been implementing the concept of flexible working, coupled with flexi-benefits and flexi-learning for the last ten years. It is also a part of the bank’s ‘employee-first’ people strategy that helps in attracting the best talent and future-proof their job roles.
