Nearly 60% Feel Safe In Returning To Office
SINGAPORE – Just as the government announced that it’s allowing more staff to work in their offices starting today (5 April), a study conducted by EngageRocket shows that 57 percent of surveyed employees in the city-state feel safe about returning to their workplace, reported Human Resources Director Asia on Friday (2 April).
However, about 40 percent of the polled workers are particularly worried about working with colleagues, who have not yet been inoculated.
The research is being jointly carried out by software firm EngageRocket, Institute for Human Resource Professionals (IHRP), and the Singapore Human Resources Institute (SHRI). The ongoing study was launched in March 2021 and is targeted to be completed by May of the same year.
On Saturday (3 April), ChannelNewsAsia (CNA) reported that although up to 75 percent of a company’s staff can return to their office in Singapore, some tech giants are holding back on making changes on their pandemic-induced work arrangements for now.
For instance, Google Singapore told the news agency that a return to the workplace will “remain voluntary” until September 2021 for all of its staff across the globe.
The search giant also shared that staff who are working outside of the country where they were originally hired will be provided more time to return until 1 September, while those who need more time “can apply for an extension based on exceptional circumstances or hardship”.
Previously, Google permitted some workers to relocate abroad for personal reasons, like returning to their home countries.
As for Twitter, it’s still evaluating Singapore’s easing of workplace restrictions. When contacted by CNA, it responded in an email that “Twitter was one of the first companies to go to a work-from-home (WFH) model in the face of COVID-19, and we didn’t anticipate being one of the first to return to offices.”
“So, if our employees are able to work from home effectively and they want to continue to do so forever, we will make that happen.”
Meanwhile, Mastercard’s Executive Vice President for customer delivery in Asia Pacific, Shafi Shaikh, revealed that from 12 April, staff in Singapore will be allowed to decide the number of days they wish to work in the office. But those who want to enter the workplace need to register online to ensure that the new 75 percent capacity limit is complied with.
Currently, staff of the payment processing firm can only work in the office for up to 10 days every 4 weeks.
