Time to RTO?

With more workers being asked to return to the office, views differ on whether flexible work should be considered a priority or just a perk

- Stephanie Yeo

Even as Singapore workers look forward to better work-life balance under the Tripartite Guidelines On Flexible Work Arrangement Requests that take effect from Dec 1, the great return to the office seems inevitable.

Sixty-one per cent of workers aged 18 and up are now working from the office, up 7 percentage points year-on-year, according to data from Blackbox Research's platform SensingSG, which polls 1,500 Singaporeans and permanent residents aged 18 and up every three months.

In contrast, 27 per cent of respondents still enjoy hybrid work arrangements, down 7 percentage points year-on-year. Only 5 per cent now work mainly from home, down 2 percentage points year-on-year.

"We expect to see a continued gradual decline in remote and hybrid working in 2025," says Mr Glenn Wray, Blackbox Research's head of strategy.

The new guidelines stipulate that Singapore employers must "fairly consider" formal requests from their staff for flexible work arrangements (FWAs). Besides telecommuting, these may include staggered hours, flexi loads, job sharing and compressed working hours.

Bosses can reject such requests for business reasons, such as cost and feasibility.

The Ministry of Manpower's employment conditions data shows a steady decline in companies offering scheduled FWA, from a high of 90.5 per cent in June 2021, when Covid-19 raged, to 68.1 per cent in June 2023.

However, such flexible arrangements are still higher than the pre-pandemic rate of 52.7 per cent in 2019.

Judging from recent workplace movements, workers still enjoying hybrid arrangements today will find themselves trading their shorts for suits more often in 2025.

"We are definitely seeing an increasing trend in organisations looking to return to the office (RTO), or increase the number of days in the office," says Ms Kirsty Poltock, a director at recruitment firm Robert Walters Singapore.