With flexibility, we also open up the fields for people with disabilities and a different, non-traditional workforce – people who can work from home, but not necessarily come in the regular hours.
Steven Chia, host:
I’m also guessing that the reaction to coming back into the office full time seems to be coming from a larger, younger population; many of them graduated during COVID, they may not have spent much time physically working in the office five days week. For the older folks, you were used to it, that’s what you used to do. So coming back isn’t that big a deal?
Karen Teo, country manager, Quess Singapore:
I always believe that people don’t just leave an organisation because of (the) RTO (policy). There are other reasons, like the boss. You’ve heard of this saying, right? “I don’t leave the company, I leave the boss.”
So if there’s actually some camaraderie within the organisation, the teamwork, social interaction with the people, that makes it harder for them to leave.
During COVID, when I hired people, there’s no connection between them and my team members. So (work and relationships) become transactional. I don’t really have that kind of connection with them.
