• Businesses globally will see an evolving purpose of the office as the future of work pivots around health and wellness, technology and flexible work arrangements.
• Regional headquarters will continue to bring value to businesses and the hub model won’t change substantially in the near term.

Against the backdrop of a global pandemic, the future of work quickly transformed into a new standard of work.

Companies switched to remote working arrangements, and technology enabled new levels of connectivity. At the height of the pandemic across Asia Pacific, an average of 68% of employees surveyed by JLL worked from home, with Singapore leading at 81%.

Is remote working here to stay however, and how does this impact the other forces that make an organisation? In a webinar organised by the Singapore Economic Development Board and JLL, panellists discussed the various dimensions shaping work today.

New workplace models

The introduction of social distancing, health and safety regulations coupled with a growing acceptance of flexible working over the past few years, have led to an accelerated adoption of new workplace models.

According to the panellists, office dedensification will become a bigger theme in the future of work. The reasons for a physical office are different than in the past and there has been a change in company policies around remote working that weren’t embraced pre-COVID. The pandemic has put into perspective that work is less about the location as opposed to a purpose. With technology, work can be executed in a home office or a physical office.

In Singapore, many companies were forced to switch to nearly 100% remote working for their workforces during the Circuit Breaker period and the ones that had elements of flexibility pre-COVID adapted better. Irrespective of organisational, design or technology upgrades, the panellists noted that the resilience of a company’s culture for dislocation of space and premises to function is what matters in the adoption of new workplace models.

The continued relevance of RHQs

In the age of remote working, questions have been asked about the viability of maintaining regional headquarters in Singapore or elsewhere. While flexible work arrangements allow for the ability to fulfil regional roles from any jurisdiction, there are larger regulatory factors at play that point to continuity of the regional headquarter model.

Governments such as Singapore’s moved swiftly and allowed for work agility to ensure the continuity of business. However, while it is difficult to define how long these policies will last, remote working policies won’t remain indefinitely as they are.

According to the panellists, a significant majority of organisations have limits on remote working due to larger considerations included tax, immigration, social security, compensation, health and wellbeing.  These factors impact both the length and scope of any remote working policy in a regional headquarters capacity.

While hub models may evolve, its value to a business remains and will not substantially change in the near term. The regional headquarters blueprint will continue to favour markets like Singapore that global players have long embraced and will enhance existing supply chains. The city-state has been at the forefront of disruptive digital trends, upskilling its talent base proactively and implementing technology enablement tools that support remote work.

The office as an offsite location

While digitisation has been afoot pre-lockdowns and accelerated due to the pandemic, the office of the future will no longer serve simply as a place to work. To meet new expectations brought by COVID-19 on mental and social well being, there will be more investments in collaboration spaces and wellness amenities.

In locations such as Singapore, regional headquarters will increasingly be seen as an investment in culture, people and that everything is centred on activity-based working. According to the panellists, there will be more hubs and mixed-use spaces in non-traditional central business districts such as Paya Lebar.

At the conflux of a new work-life balance and corporate culture debate accelerated by COVID-19, panellists added that the idea of the “15-Minute City” will become a louder conversation in Singapore. The idea behind the15-minute city, pioneered in urban centres like Paris, is to provide residents heightened access to services like workplaces, schools, retail, food and beverage, healthcare and outdoor facilities within a 15-minute walkable radius.

As a result, more questions will be raised on the suitability of a location, and more frequently, it will come down to flexibility and headquarters becoming more of a collaborative space.

In order to ensure business continuity, companies will need to curate their policies and employee engagement experiences accordingly. Questions on how we ensure work remains meaningful and can we operate on permanent remote work will persist. Regardless, the future of work is here and now.