Teleworking used to be thought of as an unproven and unreliable way for employees to work from home. However, this has changed with recent advances in technology and infrastructure. Read on to see what steps have been taken to make teleworking more viable in Singapore.
By the myBusiness techblog team
Large or small, more businesses are looking at allowing their employees to work from home—otherwise known as teleworking—than ever before. The biggest draw to allowing employees to work from home, especially for small businesses, is the cost savings. Without requiring as much office space and the overhead that comes with it, a company can put more money back into growing the business.
But that’s not all. Employees that work from home tend to self-regulate; rather than taking constant breaks, they’re more likely to sit down and get work done. Teleworking employees take fewer sick and personal days, and have increased morale. Turnover tends to be lower for companies that allow teleworking, so businesses can also save time and money otherwise spent looking for new hires.
Governmental Push for Work-Life Balance
What’s more, according to the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) recent Committee of Debate announcement following the Singapore Budget 2013, companies can receive more support in regards to flexible work arrangements. It states that it will provide support by providing:
- $100 million committed to the Work-Life Grant (part of the new WorkPro initiative) to encourage more employers to implement flexible work arrangements
- Employers with no or minimal flexible work arrangements can receive a grant of up to $40,000 to implement these strategies—double the amount that the previous WoW! Fund provided
- Employers with flexible work arrangements can apply for additional financial incentives of up to $120,000 over 3 years, or up to $40,000 per year, if at least 30% of their employees benefit from flexible work arrangements
SingTel spearheads consortium to enable home-based workforce for SMEs
SingTel has also announced that it will be part of a pilot programme to help companies utilise infocomm technology (ICT) and solutions to offer home-based work for their employees. Under the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore’s (IDA) ‘Pilot for Home-Based Work’, SingTel will form an eight-member consortium to demonstrate the viability of home-based work as a solution to manpower needs.
The one-year pilot programme will make use of SingTel’s extensive fibre broadband infrastructure and innovative solutions to connect home-based workers with offices and customers. Solutions that will be piloted include:
- Fibre-optimised unified communications (IP based voice, chat and video calls) such as SingTel i-PhoneNet and WorldConference WeMeet to make it easy for home-based workers to stay connected to their colleagues
- Online storage and collaboration applications like Oystor to facilitate file sharing with the office
- Cloud-based call centre technologies like Ops Central On Demand to empower home-based workers
- An e-Learning platform that brings teachers, students and their parents together to change the way learning can be provided from the teacher’s home to the student’s home
“This Call for Collaboration (CFC) is an invaluable platform for SingTel to participate with our SMEs customers to help them use innovative ICT solutions to raise their productivity and enhance their competitive advantage. This pilot is timely as it dovetails with the Government’s Budget initiatives to help SMEs restructure and achieve quality growth.” said Mr Andrew Lim, Managing Director (Singapore Business), Group Enterprise, SingTel.
An estimated 326,000 economically inactive residents in Singapore provides a potential pool of virtual workforce that can cater to today’s tight labour market. With 86% of Singapore households having at least one computer at home and the Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network set to complete by the end of this year, home-based work is looking to be a promising solution for manpower-strapped SMEs.
Businesses that require guidance and advice in developing polices to accommodate home-based work can also turn to Ernst and Young Advisory, the SHRI and Growth Point Consultancy for help. These companies will provide consultancy services and hold training and motivation sessions for management and their home-based employees. The consultancies will also help design or redesign jobs and business processes, develop communications channels and monitor the performance of home-based employees, as well as perform cost-benefit analysis for teleworking.
With so many schemes and initiatives to help boost your productivity through teleworking, there isn’t a better time than now to implement teleworking for your employees.
Does your business promote teleworking? How does it affect your business? Do let us know in the comment box below.