HSBC Singapore Offers Flexibility as Employees Return

The bank has outlined a vision for its approach to flexible and hybrid-location working and will give its employees the opportunity and choice to return to the office.

HSBC Singapore’s Future of Work plans will be underpinned by ensuring customer focus; flexibility for how, when, and where employees work; and ensuring that its offices are designed and used to build collaboration and networks, according to a statement on Friday.

Forward-looking companies are change-makers. This includes creating working environments that enable employees to set up arrangements that deliver high customer impact whilst suiting their personal lives, Brandon Coate, head of human resources, said.

The bank, which has about 3,300 employees in Singapore, has made a number of policy, location, technology, and cultural changes in the past year, including becoming the anchor tenant of Marina Bay Financial Centre Tower 2, which it moved to last year after its lease at 21 Collyer Quay ended.

It will upgrade its offices at MBFC and at its split-site at Mapletree Business City, in preparation for a more permanent shift to hybrid and flexible working, the bank noted. This includes state-of-art design, technology, and sustainability, and moving from traditional fixed-desk seating to an activity-based workplace, where employees have a variety of individual and shared spaces available to work or collaborate with others.

As more employees prepare to return to the workplace, following an extended period of working from home, HSBC said it will maintain operational and business continuity risk.

For example, it is allowing a maximum of 65 percent of its total staff in the office, and not allowing cross-site deployment.