SINGAPORE: Singapore’s second largest bank OCBC will be reviewing its office space requirements, including the number of bank branches it has, amid changes to working patterns brought about by the pandemic.
“COVID-19 has pointed to us that there is a place for hybrid operation for our staff in the sense that some can work from home and some can work from office,” said its chairman Ooi Sang Kuang in response to a shareholder’s question at the bank’s virtual annual general meeting on Thursday .“COVID-19 has also pointed out that not all staff need to work at the head office. Staff can be distributed to nearer their home, as well as in the suburbs,” he added.
As such, OCBC will “certainly be moving towards” a hybrid work environment where employees only work in the office on certain days.“So certainly, I think there will be a review in terms of our office requirements as we move forward.”OCBC will not be alone in doing so, as banks around the world have been re-thinking the use of offices after the pandemic showed that they can still operate effectively with remote working.
In Singapore, DBS will reportedly give up two-and-a-half floors, or 75,000 sq ft of space, in Tower 3 of Marina Bay Financial Centre in December, according to a Bloomberg report earlier this month. DBS is currently the anchor tenant there, occupying more than a dozen floors in the building. Other banks that are reportedly planning to trim their office footprint here include Citigroup, ANZ and Standard Chartered.“COVID-19 has changed the workplace operating model and we need to embrace the changes to create an agile and flexible organisation.
And with the success the of wfh for some of the positions, why bring the foreigner here to work when you can hire them directly from their own country without having them come here, pay the tax, contribute to the work pass levy, cost lesser and hired as a contractor.
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