Only 1 in 2 Singaporeans are working flexibly

A fair policy for all employees could convince more to take advantage of flexible working practices.

The ‘Guide to Anywhere Working’ survey commissioned by Polycom Inc revealed that only 50% of respondents in Singapore are working flexibly, compared to 62% globally.

“The results clearly indicated that consistency matters to workers in Singapore as 67% said they’d feel more confident working flexibly if they knew that the same policy was applicable to everyone across the company. Ensuring a fair, equal policy for all employees could be the way of getting more Singaporeans to join in the global trend,” said Polycom.

The top reasons why Singaporeans like to have the option to work anywhere are taking care of children (37%) and having more time to exercise (31%). Polycom noted that this comes as no surprise, given that long working hours are often cited as being a barrier to work/life balance in the city state, despite solid national initiatives to encourage a more family-friendly work culture.

Toh Hwee Tin, director of NTUC’s Women and Family Unit said that whilst flexi-work arrangements were offered by many companies, these were mostly informal and not supported with policies or embedded in company’s culture.

“The demographics of our workforce in Singapore comprising working parents, millennials and baby boomers, is ever changing and similarly, their working requirements. To encourage a family-friendly work culture, the responsibility shouldn’t just lie with the human resource department but it should be championed by the company’s leadership and embraced company-wide,” she said.

In terms of technology, 70% of CXOs in Singapore believe that with the right tools, flexible working challenges will be overcome.

In Asia Pacific, findings showed that almost 60% of workers in Singapore, Australia, and India are working flexibly on a frequent basis. In China, 85% of people surveyed said their company offered flexible working arrangements. Meanwhile Japan was the only country that deviates from the global ‘anywhere working’ trend.

Responses to the ‘Guide to Anywhere Working’ survey were collected from more than 25,234 workers in 12 countries. There were over 2,000 respondents from Singapore.