They either desire greater freedom or want to work for an organization that is more dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as the well-being of its employees.

Over the last two years, these factors have only become more meaningful to women leaders. If companies don’t take action in response to these trends,
they’re at risk of losing more women leaders.

Women leaders expect more flexibility

Based on the survey, 49% of women leaders say flexibility is one of the top three things they consider when deciding whether to join or stay with a company, compared to 34% of men leaders.

Women leaders are more than 1.5x as likely as men at their level to have left a previous job because they wanted to work for a company that was more committed to wellbeing and diversity and inclusion (DEI).

Companies risking the loss of young women

The factors that drive women leaders to leave their companies are
even more important to young women, who play a critical role in building diverse and inclusive teams.

Younger women are more likely than female executives to report that flexibility and the company’s dedication to employee DEI are top priorities.

Companies that don’t take action may find it difficult to attract and keep the next generation of women leaders, which has particularly worrying implications for organizations that already have a “broken rung” in their leadership pipeline.

This fact also is revealed in many other local surveys, such as the latest Workmonitor survey. Based on 1,000 Singapore local respondents, more than 40% of people said they would not accept a job offer if they couldn’t work from home or didn’t have flexible work hours.

Hybrid working empowers female workers

In a conversation with NTUC Women’s Committee leaders at the presidential palace, President Halimah Jacob said that the practice of flexible working has helped women stay in the workforce and solve the restrictions.

In Singapore, female employees need to respond to more work, for example, they need to take care of their children and elderly family members after work, and those actions will increase stress in their lives.

The tremendous pressure will make them less satisfied, leading to a decrease in work efficiency, and eventually, they may even quit. Hybrid working can help to provide enough flexibility and autonomy for females to choose the right place and time to work.

McKinsey and Lean In’s report also shows that remote work options are especially critical for women with disabilities.

Since having greater control over your work environment makes it simpler to manage mobility challenges, chronic pain, and mental health conditions, working from home can make disabled women healthier and more productive.

Additionally, having the opportunity to work remotely makes disabled women feel more appreciated and supported.

They are less likely to encounter particular microaggressions, such as receiving unfavorable remarks about their appearance or having coworkers openly doubt their credentials.

They are also more likely to claim that their management has faith in them to complete their work and that they feel at ease discussing their difficulties with coworkers.

I don’t think I could work full-time if I was required to be in the office. I think it is literally that life-changing to be remote for me.

WHITE WOMAN, ENTRY LEVEL, PHYSICAL DISABILITIES

Learn more about Women in Workplace: https://womenintheworkplace.com/

Learn more about productivity in the hybrid working era: https://ones.software/blog/?s=Productivity+

Develop your own hybrid office with our smart office system: https://ones.software/

The post Most professional women prefer hybrid and remote work first appeared on ONEs Blog.

Although women employees in Singapore are increasing and becoming more influential in the workplace, they are also subject to many constraints at work.  

In a conversation with NTUC Women’s Committee leaders at the presidential palace, President Halimah Jacob said that the practice of flexible working has helped women stay in the workforce and solve the restrictions.

So firstly, you need to know what is hybrid work and what the restrictions are for Women in Singapore.  

What you should know

• President Halimah said hybrid working can solve women’s restrictions in Singapore. 
• As a firm report shows that 60% of its leadership team is female in Singapore, female employees can become important Singaporean manpower. 
• Hot desk helps female employees to obtain enough flexibility in choosing their working time and place. 

What is hybrid working? 

Hybrid work is an approach that combines work at home and work in the office and takes into account the needs of the individual. 

It provides sufficient flexibility in work, including customized flexible working hours, workplace, and workflow by employees themselves, and allows them to work in the public workspace in the office.    

As a result, employees in Singapore are able to enjoy a personalized work schedule and combine it with a co-working style within the company to create an organized and efficient work model.  

(Watch our introduction video to Hybrid working: What is hybrid working? | ONES – YouTube ) 

What problems do Singapore female faces?

Stress from life and work  

A recent poll held on the WSG Jobs & Career Advice Telegram channel showed 86% of Singaporeans believing that women do have it harder at the workplace juggling caregiver responsibilities and their careers.   

In Singapore, female employees need to respond to more work, for example, they need to take care of their children and elderly family members after work, and those actions will increase stress in their lives.

The tremendous pressure will make them less satisfied, leading to a decrease in work efficiency, and eventually, they may even quit. 

Madam Halimah said: “Once you’ve left the workforce, after years of being out of work, it is extremely difficult to try and retrain them and get them in tune with a workforce that has changed rapidly.” 

She means that it is necessary to implement a suitable working style for them and pointed out that flexible work is the best choice. 

“So, we need to look at ways of how to help them (female employees) remain in the workforce, and this is where flexible work practices are important.” She added. 

Gender discrimination

Madam Halimah had already spent 33 years of her career in the labor movement. She said that women leaders are critical in ensuring that the grievances of female workers are heard, and inequalities are addressed.

But in Singapore’s workplace, which is still male-dominated, women’s voices are mostly silenced.  

We need to change the mindset about how people look at men and women. For instance, caregiving roles and domestic work are still very much under the purview of women…If you want women to have greater participation at work, some of these responsibilities at home must be shared. 

Singapore President Halimah Jacob

This means she recommends men should share the housework with their wives and need to face up to the issue of gender equality.  Then, female employees in Singapore can be more engaged in their jobs.

Unfortunately, for a female employee in Singapore, it is difficult to have the power to speak out to get their ideas heard.  

Dr. Sherry Aw, an independent fellow at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, shared that: “People look at me and they don’t automatically see authority, (which leads me to) think that if I were a man, I would automatically be accorded with more respect.”  

Sexual harassment

According to “WHITE PAPER ON SINGAPORE WOMEN’S DEVELOPMENT” by the Singapore Council of Women’s Organization (SCWO), it shows that Singapore’s women are often sexually harassed in the workplace.

However, they still have to go back to the office every day to face these problems. And there is no fully-in-office arrangement to prevent the problem, or without some systems and equipment to support female employees’ individual work. 

Hybrid working empowers Singapore women

As mentioned above, Madam Halimah said hybrid working is the best solution for these problems. Let’s see why hybrid working can help female employees in Singapore to empower women in the workforce. 

Providing customized working hour 

In terms of stress, hybrid working allows female employees to work at flexible working hours. Therefore, they can decide the time length by themselves to have more time to take rest or spend time with their families.

In fact, this makes them have less stress in work and life, and would not be easy to quit their jobs. Additionally, as they save time on commuting, they have more time to work to ensure high productivity. 

Providing flexible workflow and remote work 

In terms of gender discrimination, hybrid working allows female employees to work with a flexible style, then they can arrange their workflow by themselves.

While taking care of their families, hybrid working allows them to work remotely, leading they can still participate in the workforce, such as work-from-home.

As a result, they still have time for work to strive for higher positions and responsibilities in the workplace, showing society that women have excellent working abilities and not only stay at home. This has a positive impact on gender equality.  

Actually, the research from financial tech company Revolut says that women already make up half of its new workforce in Singapore and that 60% of its leadership team is female.

This shows that female employees who invest time in their work also have great result at work, and hybrid working will help to increase this strength. 

Providing flexible work location and hot desking system 

In terms of sexual harassment, hybrid working allows female employees to have flexible locations, where they can choose to work at everywhere they wanted.

Hot desking is an organizational workspace system for hybrid working in which desks are used on an ad hoc, first-come, first-served basis by different people at different times. 

It is a workplace practice in which some or all employees exchange desks rather than having a permanent one, which is most common in an activity-based work environment. It allows multiple users can use the same workstation at the same time. 

That means they can choose to work individually or work together with their colleagues. And if they return to the office, the hot desk also allows them to work individually.  

The best setup for you to implement hybrid work

A hybrid office should use a comprehensive office management system, which helps Singapore employees use office resources efficiently, such as rooms, desks, and office equipment, and support them have remote work and virtual meetings with their colleagues in the office.   

ONES is one of the famous all-in-one smart office systems that can help you to easily implement hybrid working at ease.  You can easily perform virtual meetings, desk hoteling, and digital office management with our Room Booking, Desk Booking, and Visitor Management features.      

ONES Software now has a dedicated page to introduce a series of hybrid working measures to help you solve problems. You may wish to go to https://ones.software/hybrid-workspace/ for further reference.     

Contact us: hello@ones.software, or visit ONES Software official website for more information: https://ones.software/sg/. 

The post Hybrid working empowers female workers now, according to Singapore President first appeared on ONEs Blog.

The status of female employees in Singapore 

Since Singapore attained self-government in 1959, the Government has worked tirelessly to support Singapore women and make sure they are standing in society has risen steadily. 

From 1994 to 2021, the Singapore employment rate of women between the ages of 25 – 64 years has increased from 53% to 75%. According to a Deloitte report, 13.1% of Singapore companies in 2021 were helmed by a female chief executive and that is the highest share globally.

Moreover, Madam Halimah Yacob was sworn in as the first female President of the Republic of Singapore in 2013. As you see, Singapore’s female workforce is becoming increasingly important in the workplace. 

Nevertheless, Singapore women still face some unfair treatment, for example, sexism, violence, and sexual harassment in the workplace, etc. Therefore, the Singapore Council of Women’s Organization (SCWO) has submitted the “WHITE PAPER ON SINGAPORE WOMEN’S DEVELOPMENT”  to Singapore Government to provide suggestions to protect female employees. 

Flexible Working Arrangements & Hybrid Working 

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, globally many companies (including Singapore companies) have conducted the flexible working method, i.e., hybrid working.

To better support more women to enter and progress in the workforce, the white paper recommended that the Government should guide and support companies to provide flexible working arrangements (FWA), and require employers to assess requests for FWAs fairly and properly.   

FWA is a new set of tripartite (Policymakers, employees, and unions) guidelines and the aim is to require employers to consider flexible work arrangement requirements fairly and properly by 2024.

The meaning of a fairly and properly flexible work arrangement is that reminding the directors to decide on the working method should be balanced between the needs of the companies and employees, not only benefits one side.   

According to a study by the Institute of Policy Studies in Singapore, 42% of workers who prefer flexible work arrangements would consider quitting if they were forced to go to the office most days. If companies implement flexible working, they can satisfy the employees’ needs and retain their talents. Thus, the best solution to balance the needs of the companies and employees is to implement hybrid working. 

Suggestions to support employees by Woman’s Organization 

One of the important suggestions of the white paper is to recommend that companies implement flexible working. One of the general reasons is that it can give the employees more flexibility to work, then can make them work efficiently as they have less stress.  

The white paper also recommended that the Singapore companies’ directors should take care of the female welfare and have a close connection with women’s organizations, such as the Singapore Council of Women’s Organizations (SCWO).  

These organizations will support the companies to protect female employees and help the women employees achieve a balance between their career and family aspirations. Furthermore, hybrid working allows the employees to have a flexible work schedule, work hours, and work location, also they can decide the workflow by themselves.  

How hybrid working can protect women’s rights? 

Can spend more time with family

The first advantage of hybrid working is that flexible working hours allow the women employees can spend more time with family and improve their attendance. The reason is that Singapore women are very cautious of their families. Flexible work locations can prevent women employees from always needing to request leave because they need to take care of their children or the elders.  

Prevent in-office unfair treatment

The second advantage is the flexible work schedule allows the female employees to set their own work schedule. This can prevent unfair treatment such as sexism, violence, and sexual harassment in the workplace as they need not be forced to work with others in the office every day.  

Maintain work-life balance

Last but not least, hybrid working can help women employees’ work-life balance and improve their attendance because flexible work locations prevent them from always needing to request leave to take care of their families.  

The flexible work schedule can help women employees far away the sexism, violence, and sexual harassment as they have the own right to set the work on their own schedule. This can protect the women employees safe and also ensures that the company’s reputation is not affected by the scandal.

Therefore, hybrid working has a great positive impact on Singapore women’s development. 

A perfect system for hybrid working in Singapore: ONES

A hybrid office should use a comprehensive office management system, which helps Singapore employees use office resources efficiently, such as rooms, desks, and office equipment, and support them have remote work and virtual meetings with their colleagues in the office.   

If you are the company director in Singapore, using the management systems can help you consider how to reduce the operational cost such as reducing the office workspace and fulfilling the expectations of both employees and administrators. 

ONES, one of the famous management systems, can help you to easily implement hybrid working with ease.  You can easily perform virtual meetings, desk-hoteling, and digital office management with our Room Booking, Desk Booking, and Visitor Management features.  

ONES Software now has a dedicated page to introduce a series of hybrid working measures to help you solve problems. You may wish to go to https://ones.software/sg/hybrid-workspace/ for further reference.  

Contact us: hello@ones.software, or visit ONES Software official website for more information: https://ones.software/. 

The post How hybrid working helps Singapore women’s development now? first appeared on ONEs Blog.