During COVID-19, remote work allowed public officers to be more productive by reducing travel time. Workplaces became more accessible and inclusive for those with caregiving needs and persons with disabilities.
But the prolonged telecommuting over more than two years also made it more challenging to foster connections among officers, collaborate among teams, and build a culture as an organisation.
Post-COVID, public agencies are encouraged to design a new future workplace experience that combines the strengths of remote and onsite work. In doing so, public agencies should work to enhance the organisation’s effectiveness, such as having more responsive modes of collaboration.
Flexible work arrangements should also contribute to broader national goals such as reducing the peak hour load on public transport, and allowing employees with diverse needs (such as PwDs and caretakers) to remain engaged at work.
Work-from-office days should be centred around fruitful collaboration, social connections and care for employees’ wellbeing.
Collaboration: Improving In-person Workspaces
At DBS, a cross-regional Future of Work Taskforce formed in 2020 found that over 80% of the bank’s 29,000-strong workforce could work remotely in a seamless way. All employees now have the flexibility to work remotely up to 40% of the time.
Although the bank’s employees in Singapore reported via surveys that they remained productive while working remotely, staying engaged and connected with colleagues was challenging. This included having informal discussions and cross-team ideation, which they found difficult to do remotely.
DBS will be launching a 5,000-square ft Living Lab that blends the best of physical and virtual workspace configurations in its Singapore headquarters.
Having built activity-based workspaces known as JoySpaces since 2016, DBS will continue to reconfigure its workspaces to enable greater collaboration and ideation.
DBS CEO Piyush Gupta said: “We are prepared to radically transform the way we work by… implementing a permanent hybrid work model, flexible work arrangements, and deploying more agile squads while creating workspaces that will help to supercharge ideation and collaboration."
Connection: Tools for Socialising and Virtual Work
At Open Government Products (OGP), the tech team behind products such as FormSG, ParkingSG, and the COVID-19 vaccination appointment system, flexible work arrangements aim to recreate the office experience at home, and have seamless transitions from virtual to in-person meetings.
OGP does this by using off-the-shelf tech tools, such as the collaborative Google software suite and messaging platform Slack. These platforms allow for easy collaboration over documents, integrations for information to flow easily between systems (e.g., Google Calendars linking with HR and messaging systems on teammates’ availability), and the automation of reminders, announcements and tasks.
