Flexible working? Tech makes the difference

Picture this: You're managing a team of 30, split across two office locations in Changi and Shenton Way. Your company has instituted a flexible workplace model, and you have to keep track of who is working from home and who is in either of the offices.

When you call for a face-to-face meeting with eight of your team members, chaos erupts. Firstly, some of the attendees end up in the wrong office. Then you realise one employee is supposed to work from home to avoid breaching capacity limits for workplaces. And finally, upon arriving at the meeting room, you discover that the maximum number of people allowed in the space has been reduced to five due to safe distancing measures.

It's a nightmare for any organisation, but it's a predicament that is commonplace. Nonetheless, it's a problem business leaders in Singapore are keen to solve with flexible working. Indeed, the KellyOCG Global Workforce Agility Report has found that 72 per cent of Singapore executives want to adopt more flexible ways of working post-pandemic1.

Of course, flexible working is a very broad concept. There is no one-size-fits-all, and employers need a scalable, flexible and customisable solution that meets the specific needs of their business and those of each individual employee - all while ensuring bottom lines remain healthy. Only technology can make this a realistic proposition.

Technology as an enabler

Condeco believes that Singapore is in a prime position to use technology to ease workplace challenges. For example, a workspace booking solution that works across the web, a mobile app and Microsoft Outlook calendars can help employees easily match their work schedules to the spaces they need.

Solutions like these allow employers to solve three key challenges around giving employees confidence in accessing everything they need, in gaining freedom in how and when they work, and in ensuring ease of collaboration between co-workers:

However the pandemic situation evolves, employers will for some time be expected to create office environments where employees can feel and be safe, even when physical collaboration between individuals, teams or groups has to take place.

The Condeco workspace booking solution enables a rapid response in the event of contact tracing. Employee movements and occupancy on site can be recalibrated and managed on the platform. Companies can also plan for greater social distancing between workstations, adapting quickly to new restrictions should the Covid-19 situation call for it.

Many employees now expect a greater degree of flexibility, autonomy and work-life balance from their employers model. However, the blurring of work and home boundaries has been unsettling for some, and others have found that their home spaces are not conducive for focused work. This challenge has been faced by businesses worldwide: For example, in the United States, chiropractors saw a steep rise in cases of neck and back pain during the first home-working periods of the pandemic².

Condeco's workspace booking software helps every employee shape the working arrangements they want. They check the availability of the spaces they need for individual work or collaboration and book these spaces whenever and wherever they are. That way, they're free to choose where, when and how they wish to work, and can even check their co-workers' schedules to plan ahead for face-to-face collaboration.

"At Lumen Technologies, Condeco has enabled flexible working for our employees. They are now empowered with the choice of working from home or in the office. On the days that they are in the office, their status and desk location can be easily searched for on the mobile app - this helps to make communication and collaboration easier amongst teams." Ariel Abalos, IT Regional Head of Strategic Planning & Transformation, Lumen Technologies Asia-Pacific

A new approach to work demands a new approach to workspaces and workplace layouts. Defining different areas for different types of work activity can make office environments clearer and easier to manage, and encourages employee engagement with the physical spaces in the office.

Within the Condeco solution, various "shared" workspaces can be visually mapped out, and made available to employees to reserve for use at the times they require them. Employers can therefore create and reshape layouts that are flexible, clearly demarcated and safe for employees, so that they can work wherever they want and in a way that suits their personal circumstances.

"With extensive integration with Microsoft applications, the workspace booking solutions enables greater ease in the management of office logistics, existing real estate and coordination of schedules so that employees can focus on what really matters: the work."

Thomas Chambers, Regional Sales Director, Condeco APAC

The way forward

As businesses in Singapore look towards flexible working models for the long term, there are several key factors to consider: