The many faces of work-life balance

In the coming months, non-production workers from 3M here will be able to work anywhere they want, any time they want.

The tech giant's Work Your Way programme, which launched globally in August, is an expansion of its flexible work policies since 2015, says Mr Kevin McGuigan, vice-president and managing director of 3M South East Asia Region and its country leader of Singapore.

The trust-based model "prioritises an employee's contributions and results, not where he or she works", he explains.

"We believe a more flexible way of working will help us drive growth and recruit and retain the best people. It will help us create stronger connections, better serve customers and advance our culture."

Mr McGuigan declines to say how many of its more than 1,800 employees here will enjoy this benefit. But he adds that 3M will also redesign workspaces to be more flexible and collaborative.

Its initiative sounds like a dream come true for many workers and, indeed, flexi-work seems to be one of the biggest work-life balance shifts that the pandemic has accidentally gifted.

A study by consultancy Mercer last year found that while eight out of 10 employers in Asia-Pacific had less than 25 per cent of their employees working remotely before Covid-19 hit, 58 per cent now expect to see between a quarter and all of their staff doing so for the longer term.

At the same time, other workplace experts are warning of a potential tsunami of resignations as burnt-out employees leave for greener pastures.

Recruitment agency Michael Page's Talent Trends 2021 report said 56 per cent of workers here anticipate looking for a new job this year.

McKinsey consultancy's report last month warned of a possible "Great Attrition", similar to the one happening in the United States, where record numbers of workers have left their jobs since April this year.

Driving this push is the disconnect between why bosses think people leave (money, work-life balance, health) and what workers are looking for (feeling valued, a sense of belonging).

So, even as flexi-work is touted as the Holy Grail of work-life balance, "it is critical that organisations pay close attention to the mental health consequences that can come with working remotely", says Mr Lewis Garrad, career business leader at Mercer, Singapore.

NeXT Career Consulting Group managing director Paul Heng quips: "From the perspective of some bosses: 'Work-life balance - what's that? You are already at home, what more do you want?' But seriously, the struggle has been to know where to draw the line that separates work-time and after-work time."

In a tight labour market, bigger pay cheques to keep key talent may work only in the short term, Mr Garrad says. "This means addressing not only the financial, but also the physical, mental and emotional needs of employees. Today's employees are as driven by company culture, enhanced benefits and flexibility as they are by salary."

The reality is that work-life balance in the pandemic has evolved beyond a one-size-fits-all solution, Mr Heng says. "The starting point should be asking employees relevant questions such as 'What more can the management do so you feel more comfortable continuing with us?'"

As the companies profiled here demonstrate, showing workers that they are valued and building team spirit in the pandemic takes many forms.

It may mean something as simple as being allowed to ignore a work-related request on WhatsApp after your shift or an unexpected birthday treat in the middle of a Zoom meeting.

Yet, what seems to unite the best practices is trust and respect for their employees, who, in turn, are motivated to exceed expectations.

As Mr Patrick Fiat, general manager of the Royal Plaza on Scotts hotel, who recently won a prestigious leadership award, puts it: "What makes a great employer, to me, is communication, communication, communication.

"If you communicate with people regularly and you listen to them, you react, you take action on what they say. Because if you listen and do nothing, they will stop talking to you."

Staff from Detrack love receiving toilet paper from the office.

Since the start of the pandemic, the logistics tech start-up has sent its 20 staff four rounds of care packs filled with goodies from masks to chicken essence to snacks.

The latest one sent out last Tuesday was inspired by the hit Netflix series Squid Game and includes challenges for staff to do at the next team meeting, says Detrack's chief operating officer Fanny See, 39.

The packages also include toilet paper, a reference to the running joke of toilet paper shortage during the pandemic, but also because Ms See's staff told her they missed the Kleenex three-ply aloe vera rolls used in the office toilet.

That sense of jovial camaraderie pervades the company, which launched in 2014 after Ms See and her then-boyfriend, now-husband Dason Goh, 41, saw an untapped opportunity in the market when they set up a small online florist business.

After a nightmarish Valentine's Day when deliveries went haywire, the couple and Mr Daniel Goh, 47, Dason's brother, started a smartphone-based, software-as-service company that helps small and medium enterprises keep tabs on packages in real time.

It now serves customers in over 50 countries.

Pre-Covid-19, it had started to build a reputation for what Ms See calls its "fun, dynamic and spontaneous culture".

Detrack's office has no cubicles or rooms to encourage colleagues to communicate and collaborate across departments.

Sports mornings twice a week allow teams to mingle, then have lunch together, before starting work at about 1pm.

Mr Chong Wee Chien, 33, a software engineer who has been with Detrack since August last year, enjoyed the badminton sessions with his colleagues when they were allowed to mingle.

"I know there are other companies with these activities, but this is the first time I heard of a company allowing their staff to exercise during working hours," he says.

Besides a well-stocked pantry, Detrack had cocktail hour at about 3pm daily - "Our lychee martini is really good," Ms See says - and team-bonding events that ranged from bowling to movies.

The highlight each year was the company-wide staycation at a five-star hotel. Employees could take along their family members too.

These are no token gestures.

Ms See explains that such initiatives "break through the monotony of work".

"That is what we always want to give our staff - a very vibrant company to work where they feel like they are heard, they're respected, they're supported.

"If they want to try something new, we celebrate failures very much."

When Covid-19 forced workers back into their homes, Detrack's bosses thought up alternatives to maintain the bond they had worked so hard to build up.

"We have a very family culture. During this pandemic, the challenge is how do we replace physical contact because that is really what will bring on loyalty and motivation and build up the team spirit? How can you replace that now that we cannot see one another?" she says.

Besides care packs, they took pains to celebrate their employees' birthdays virtually.

A Foodpanda delivery would catch the staff member by surprise in the middle of a meeting, and his or her colleagues would then launch into a birthday song.

In lieu of a grand staycation last year, Detrack held a sure-win virtual lucky draw after polling its employees for their dream prize (the iPad turned out to be the hot item).

When bigger groups were allowed to gather, individual departments were challenged to use up their staff budget in the most creative way and share their experiences on Instagram Stories to win extra prizes.

Mr Chong was touched when he and other staff received accessories to help them work from home (WFH) during the circuit breaker.

As the Malaysian rents a room here, he had resorted to working at the dining room table, but the new monitor, table and office chair helped tremendously, he says.

He also made use of the company's newly expanded medical benefits scheme. It covers everything from spa services to buying spectacles and is meant to help employees with WFH-induced wellness issues.

Mr Chong used his allowance to go for traditional Chinese medicine treatments.

"It helped me a lot with my chronic back pain," he says, explaining that it was caused by a previous job where he worked overtime regularly.

He also likes the fact that the company is mindful of its employees' mental wellness and uses tech tools to improve productivity, as well as Slack, a business communication platform that he feels is less intrusive than WhatsApp.

Similarly, creative designer Gabrielline Oliveiro, 37, appreciates how understanding the management is of employees who have kids.

She initially found it a struggle to manage working from home while supervising the home-based learning (HBL) needs of her daughters, aged 10 and eight.

"They said, take your time, finish with the girls' HBL, then you can carry on with work after that. I feel they have been very supportive," she says.

She and her colleagues also make sure to check on one another to find out if they are coping.

Ms See, who has four children aged one to nine, adds that meetings are not held in the mornings so parents can help their kids first. Flexi-work arrangements are customised to each staffer's needs.

Such initiatives to make staff feel valued while working remotely have also helped the onboarding process for new hires, says Ms See.

While she declines to reveal revenue figures, she says Detrack's growth has allowed it to increase headcount by 30 per cent since the start of the pandemic.

Despite the disruptions over the last 18 months or so, the company has achieved two important industry certification standards - the Data Protection Trustmark and ISO 27001.

These are proof that proactive staff policies reap dividends, she says.

"Our employees are so important to us. They are really our assets. They are the reason we even have a company today. So we have to take care of them, especially during this pandemic."

Traditional Chinese medicine chain Oriental Remedies Group was hit hard in the early days of the pandemic when many patients cancelled their appointments out of fear, says Ms Beatrice Liu, 37, its co-founder and CEO, which in this case stands for chief everything officer.

Beyond the hard figures, she also had to deal with matters of the heart.

Two of the clinic's long-term patients, who had terminal cancer, died towards the end of the circuit breaker. During that trying period, the clinic could not offer them all their usual treatments and they also shied away because of their weakened immunity, she explains.

"My staff were quite affected and were crying. So that's also why we engaged external help," she says. Employees can now see a psychologist anonymously if they need to.

"During the pandemic, we realised that maybe people were anxious or stressed, but they were not aware of it," she adds.

This led to a "rest and relax" element during briefings for each shift. Staff share updates on their personal lives or physicians teach them breathing techniques to improve the flow of qi, or energy, in the body. They also learn how to use tapping on acupressure points as a means of self-relaxation.

"These are small steps to show them that it's not just about taking care of patients. It must first start with themselves."

Ms Liu's passion for TCM stems from caring for her late mother, who sought alternative treatments for cancer. She met physician Leong Weizhen in 2016 and the pair revamped the latter's clinic into Oriental Remedies Group in 2019.

Unusually for the industry, the group's staff work a five-day week and are not stuck in a permanent shift, which gives them more family time. Non-patient-facing staff have always worked from home.

Such perks have attracted talent to help it expand to two clinics, with a third in the works. Its headcount has increased from eight to 40, and revenue has jumped seven-fold since January last year to seven digits.

Ms Liu has also implemented post-pandemic strategies to increase efficiency so staff do not need to work more than necessary. External trainers helped physicians improve their communication skills with patients, and staff have a weekly scorecard so they are aware of deliverables.

Senior physician Julie Low, 31, who joined the company in March last year, appreciates that it listens to her needs. She has a daughter aged two and has no helper.

The challenging part is things keep changing. So sometimes schools close or a close contact has Covid-19, and I need to take last-minute leave," she says.

"Our colleagues are very understanding and try to accommodate me. I'm quite thankful for that."

Ms Liu adds: "I think work-life balance really takes a lot of trust. And it is also driven by communication, so if they tell us what they want, and we can tell them we can deliver if certain conditions are met, I think that helps a lot," she says.

At the Royal Plaza on Scotts, an emoji is a powerful tool for mental wellness.

Just over a month ago, the hotel kicked off two initiatives which are radical for the always-on hospitality industry.

Under its no after-hours communication policy, staff who receive messages after they have completed their shift can respond with the "face with sunglasses" emoji to indicate that they are off work.

The sender of the message will then know that his or her colleague should not be disturbed. If it is an emergency, however, the sender can indicate the urgency with three "shocked face" emojis.

The hotel's general manager Patrick Fiat, 69, says the pandemic's economic repercussions and everchanging rules have stretched his staff, which number around 240.

So, he felt the need to "ensure that when they are at home, it is really a break from work".

"It's difficult in our industry, but I believe it can be done. Sometimes, we use it as an excuse. You have a problem, you call your colleague or supervisor and say: 'Can you help me, can you do that for me'," he explains.

Junior sous chef Aaron Tan, 38, welcomes the move, although he admits it took a while to get used to the new guidelines.

"I think twice before picking up the phone or to send a message to my colleagues. If it's not urgent, I'll wait for the next day or when they're back at work," he says.

Mr Fiat says that while the new move is still in its early days, staff have given it the thumbs-up. "When I was asking our people today, there's a big smile because they can take care of their kids, they can do their cooking, they can go to the market.

"They don't have to carry the phone everywhere they go because they know we're not going to call. They can relax, they can enjoy (their time off)," he says.

The Royal Plaza has also stopped meetings on Fridays.

That has proven to be a huge boon, chef Tan says, as that is a busy day for kitchen staff who have to prepare for the weekend's culinary offerings in advance.

Instead of holding a one-hour long morning briefing, his boss sends the team updates via WhatsApp. Chef Tan now has time to organise the store, do prep work or check his duty roster. "Definitely, the day is less stressful and more productive," he says.

Ms Katina Kassim, 46, a senior sales manager, uses the extra time on Fridays to catch up on work backlogs and projects.

"Then we get an uninterrupted weekend with family, to freshen up and prepare for the challenges in the next week. So that is something we appreciate."

The hotel's new initiatives come two months after its wins at the Tripartite Alliance Award, which is conferred by the Ministry of Manpower, National Trades Union Congress and Singapore National Employers Federation.

It clinched the Work-Life Excellence award for being one of the best organisations to work for in Singapore. Mr Fiat, who has been with the Royal Plaza for 23 years, also received the Leadership Award - Work-Life Excellence.

In an industry known for its high turnover rate of about 30 per cent, the hotel has kept its figure at a low 14 to 17 per cent.

Still, Covid-19 has made team bonding a lot harder. While staff used to chill over fishing and durian trips pre-pandemic, they are now strictly segregated into different zones as some serve guests on stay-home notices.

Mr Fiat, who says his job is "management by walking around" and interacting with guests and staff, laments: "I've not been to the housekeeping and engineering departments for over one year. I miss them."

To keep team bonds tight, its human capital department engages its employees via WhatsApp content that is not work-related. This ranges from sharing a colleague's personal hobby to fun quizzes to a recent steps challenge.

At the same time, jobseekers' expectations have evolved during the pandemic, says Mr Fiat. Candidates are now asking if they can work from home, so "we have to be ready to have the flexibility", he adds.

In fact, the hotel is planning to allow administrative staff to work from home one day a week once workers are all allowed back in the office, an unusual move in the industry.

Operational employees, who are based in the hotel, cannot enjoy that, but they can take advantage of existing flexible work arrangements such as a 22- or 44-hour week, depending on their needs.

Mr Fiat says there will be no backtracking to old ways even when Covid-19 is over: "We want to keep that to be our new culture."

He quips: "You know the saying - happy staff, happy guests, happy profits."

Ms Sylvia Wen, 40, works better at night. That is the time when her eight-year-old twin boys are tucked into bed and she can focus on problem-solving as chief marketing officer of Counto, a local automated accounting tech start-up.

"Inspiration can strike me anytime. I can start work at 9pm after they go to sleep and it's not uncommon for me to send out e-mails to my boss at 2am," Ms Wen says.

"Nobody here has a fixed nine-to-five schedule and this is good for me because, as a parent, life can be very unpredictable."

Launched in March last year in the early days of the pandemic here, Counto's digital-first approach has helped make working from home smoother, says co-founder and chief operating officer Saba Khan, 45.

The company, which has 15 employees across five countries as far away as Germany and the United States, has no physical office. When staff members need to get in touch with their peers, they do not use email, but jump on Google's chat and meeting tools to collaborate.

"E-mail felt like a very formal way of communication, which is great and perhaps required for clients (but) we wanted a more casual style of communication internally," says Mrs Khan.

Its flexi-work policies have also attracted highly skilled female engineers, who account for 70 per cent of the staff - an usually high number as women are under-represented in technology firms and make up about 30 per cent of the industry's workforce.

"We have fresh engineers come in who were like, 'Can we just work at night?', and we're like, 'Great'. We have mums who have slightly younger kids and want to spend a little more time in the day with them, and they are willing to work nights and catch up in the early morning," she says.

Mrs Khan, who had worked with big-name financial firms such as Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley before becoming an entrepreneur, walks the flexi-work talk herself.
She has two daughters aged nine and 14.

"I've gone for a long walk and checked into the office at 11am. I have woken up at 4am to work because my children are on holiday and I want to spend the morning with them," she says. "Because we've respected that flexibility, we have so many women feeling safe, feeling that they can actually balance their kids, their other commitments, their household responsibilities as well as do meaningful work."

Counto's system certainly seems to work, as the company has been growing healthily since its inception. Revenue jumped 10 times this year compared with last year and it has doubled its headcount this year as well, she says.

But how does it hold employees accountable? "We are sitting in a place where output can be seen and measured. And we are largely in a compliance space with very hard deadlines," Mrs Khan says.

"Ultimately, the culmination of all of that is really just happy clients, right? That, to me, is the epitome of us working together in a remote working environment."

"If I go back a step further, it may also mean that when we are hiring, we're looking for driven people. We want to make sure people are self-motivated."

Ms Wen adds: "We have a very good culture of trusting one another to get the job done. So our boss sets the direction and we figure out how to achieve those goals. There's no micromanagement."