Singapore

MOST bankers will not be flocking back to their offices as Singapore eases out of its partial lockdown this week, with major banks here looking to maintain their current work-from-home arrangements while cautiously reopening additional branches.

Many are relooking the conventions of banking from a longer-term perspective, with some mulling the option of letting staff work from home "on a more formal basis" even after the Covid-19 crisis, their respective spokespersons told The Business Times.

As it is, between 70 and 90 per cent of bank staff have been working from home over the past eight weeks, and will likely continue to do so even as circuit breaker measures relax from June 2.

Singapore will ease out of its two-month circuit breaker period - where all non-essential activities outside the home have been suspended - in three planned phases of rebooting the economy, starting on Tuesday. The first phase, wherein dining-in and most other social activities are still not allowed, will begin on June 2.

While financial institutions will be allowed to reopen more customer service locations, there are restrictions. For one thing, those seeking to have in-person meetings with their customers at their business premises, must get approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore to do so.

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The Ministry of Manpower has also said that all companies - including those resuming operations in the first two phases of the economy's reopening - should adopt working from home as a default option, even as lockdown restrictions are eased. Staff should only return to the office where working from home is not an option.

Those asked to return to their offices or to resume face-to-face meetings with clients will also be greeted by a new normal of face shields, designated bins for face masks, and acrylic dividers between ATMs, among other things - on top of the authorities' existing guidelines that require employees to don masks, take their temperature and maintain a one-metre safe distance with others.

Singapore's largest bank DBS, for instance, will provide each employee working at its offices with one bottle of disinfectant spray, and face shields will be mandated for wealth planners meeting clients face to face.

The bank will also double up on its safe distancing measures at its offices by installing designated bins to ensure the containment and safe disposal of face masks and disinfecting high touchpoints at two-hour intervals. The lifts at some of its offices have also been re-calibrated to reduce their maximum permitted load, to allow for safe distancing.

DBS, UOB, Citi Singapore and HSBC Singapore will also apply anti-microbial, disinfecting coatings at various parts of their branches and offices, such as on door handles, button panels, and ATMs.

Staggered working and lunch hours, as well as split team operations - which were already in place prior to the circuit breaker - will continue at most banks.

But DBS' spokesperson maintained that most of its employees who are currently working from home will continue to do so. "We are exploring how we can progressively move small numbers of employees back to the office and will do so in close consultation with the authorities," said the bank's spokesperson.

UOB's head of human resources Dean Tong said his bank will implement shorter shifts for some staff and that his team is "reviewing the way (they) work from a longer-term workplace and workspace perspective".

OCBC's chief executive Samuel Tsien had also said during the bank's virtual annual general meeting in May that it expects to rejig its branch network strategy post-pandemic, pointing to the rising adoption of digital banking services.

For Citi, most staff will only return to offices in phases from July. About 88 per cent of its workforce of around 8,500 are currently working remotely. The bank plans to maintain this split.

At Citi, further precautions for staff working onsite will come in the form of acrylic shields on teller counters and in consultation rooms, as well as acrylic dividers between ATMs. Staff will also use UVC, a subtype of ultraviolet light, to disinfect high-touch areas at their branches.

Globally, the bank's management has implemented a "safe distance" of two metres - double the Singapore government's recommendation - in all its branches, common areas, as well as between workstations.

Precautions with such safe distancing measures aside, all seven major banks that BT spoke to will continue to enhance employees' capacity to work and serve customers remotely.

HSBC's country operating officer Olfret de Wit said his bank has "received interest from colleagues to work from home in the long-term on a more formal basis" and is exploring the option.

Meanwhile, the bank is providing ergonomic chairs and computer monitors to help employees work from home. It has also allowed more flexibility for them to defer their current leave to 2020-2021.

At Maybank Singapore, a "large majority" of staff will continue working from home after June 2, with the bank maintaining on-site operations at just nine out of its 18 branches - as it did during the circuit breaker period.

Most banks have also made use of this period to equip their staff, both technically and socially, for the new norms of working digitally.

For instance, DBS now releases learning "playlists" each fortnight, which curate bite-sized modules and virtual classes on topics like blockchain, digital disruption, and the science behind decision making.

At Standard Chartered, more employees are using an in-house mobile app for bite-sized learning. The bank's Singapore chief Patrick Lee said app utilisation has doubled in the first quarter of this year, compared with last year.

Amol Gupte, Citi head of Asean and country officer for Singapore, said the bank will focus on the longer-term strategic shift that will "outlive the pandemic".

Likewise, and as UOB's Mr Tong put it: "The days of 100 per cent of the workforce being physically present in the office are a thing of the past."