Amazon back-to-office policy 'a bummer' for Singapore employees, but more tech firms could follow suit

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Hybrid work arrangements could become a differentiating factor for smaller tech firms in attracting talent, industry observers say.​

Amazon's office at Asia Square in Singapore. (File photo: Amazon)

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Matthew Mohan & Davina Tham
20 Sep 2024 06:00AM (Updated: 20 Sep 2024 07:19PM)
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SINGAPORE: Amazon's decision to end its hybrid work policy and return to the office five days a week did not go over well with staff, the tech giant's Singapore employees told CNA.
“There was this dire feeling that it might happen (eventually)," one employee who spoke on condition of anonymity said. But he didn't think the company would go ahead given the global trend of remote working.

 

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Industry observers said Amazon's move likely signals a gradual shift by tech companies to more work-from-office days.

This will have a big impact on employee retention and recruitment, and hybrid work arrangements could become a differentiating factor for smaller tech firms in attracting talent, they added.

Earlier this week, Amazon said employees will be required to return to working at company offices five days per week beginning next year, toughening a prior three-day mandate.

Amazon has more than 2,000 workers across its business units in Singapore. In May, it announced plans to invest S$12 billion (US$8.88 billion) in Singapore by 2028 to expand its cloud computing infrastructure here.

 

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With everybody else in the market trimming office space and then suddenly Amazon is doing this, it didn’t sit quite well with a lot of people,” he said.

The hybrid model has been particularly helpful for employees who have children and those taking care of aged parents, he added.

Another employee said that there was some anger and uncertainty among staff on the day of the announcement, but also bemusement in the days that followed with the amount of news coverage globally.

Within the tech industry, there has been a “buzz” that employees would eventually have to return to offices, she said. “It wasn’t really surprising, it was (more of) when it would happen.”

Veteran recruiter Neil Dyball, managing director of Hudson Singapore, said that other large tech firms would follow Amazon’s cue, but not immediately.

“As so many large tech companies got rid of their real estate, they just do not have the space right now to have their teams back” in the office full-time, he said.

 

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Amazon’s Singapore office opened a new location a few months ago, so the company is in a “different position” to demand that staff work from the office.

It is one of the anchor tenants of IOI Central Boulevard Towers, reportedly leasing 369,000 sq ft in the new office development that opened in the central business district earlier this year.

He added that larger multinational corporations and those in the financial industry have been unofficially auditing productivity and work times over the past year or more, to help validate a decision on a full return to the office.

But going forward, smaller tech firms will use hybrid work to differentiate themselves from larger firms.

This is also because these firms no longer have the “inflated” valuations that allowed them to attract talent through compensation, said Mr Dyball.

Other observers expected tech companies to return to having more days in the office, but keep flexibility in the form of one or two remote work days or flexible start and end times, as this is what employees now expect.