SINGAPORE: When marketing manager Joanne moved back to Hong Kong after three years of being stuck in Hong Kong due to COVID 19 border restrictions, she found working from home to be impractical, isolating and lonely.
She used the co-working app Workbuddy to try several locations before settling on a WeWork office at 22 Cross Street in Chinatown, where she wanted to have a more office setting for human interaction and better productivity.
Joanne found her new working environment to be conducive and aesthetically pleasing. She said that it has been a great boost to productivity, and really helped me to work in a nice space.
The unlimited coffee and discounted pastries at attached cafe sarnies from WeWork have been the best part of her membership, she said.
Joanne is part of a group of workers who are eager to find a workspace that fits their needs, as they seek to improve productivity and happiness on the job.
All employees have been able to return to the workplace since the COVID 19 workplace restrictions were lifted in April 2022. The pandemic has also brought about a re-examination of the need for flexible work arrangements.
Between 41 and 52 per cent of respondents said hybrid work should be the new norm for workplaces in Singapore, a study by the Institute of Policy Studies that polled more than 2,000 workers from mid-July last year to April 2022.
Employers have been encouraged to offer flexible work arrangements to benefit from better work-life harmony, a more engaged and productive workforce, as endorsed by the Ministry of Manpower, the National Trades Union Congress and the Singapore National Employers Federation.
As more employers pay closer attention to the evolution of work, many are turning to co-working spaces as a solution.
In recent years, these have sprouted up over Singapore, so that workers are never too far away from a hot-desking option.
Amid increasing competition to fill their spaces with bodies - especially within Singapore's highly concentrated central business district - these co-working firms are stepping up their game in order to provide the ideal work environment.