Singapore's DBS Bank is preparing its workplace for a post-Covid world, moving to a hybrid remote/office model and doubling down on its efforts to train employees in emerging areas such as design thinking, data and analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning and agile practices.
To bank convened a Future of Work Taskforce six months ago to gain a deeper understanding of the implications of the remote office lifestyle. It found that over four in five of the bank’s 29,000-strong workforce are able to work seamlessly remotely.
However, close to 3,000 employees in Singapore indicated that while they are still productive while working remotely, staying engaged and connected with colleagues was challenging. As such, they prefer hybrid work arrangements over a pure ‘remote work’ or ‘work in office’ approach.
To meet these needs, the bank intends to give employees the flexibility to work remotely up to 40% of the time. It is also reconfiguring the workplace environment to enable greater collaboration, beginning with the launch of a 5000-square foot 'Living Lab' that aims to blend the best of physical and virtual working practices.
The bank is also introducing a job-sharing scheme and introducing more part-time work arrangements, building on the ability to operate successfully in split teams over the past few months.
The operating model will also undergo a transformation, characterised not by conventional functional departments but by project-specific data-driven 'squads' formed with members from different functions and relevant areas of expertise.
Says the bank: "While agile squads are already commonplace in some parts of the bank, primarily in the technology space, this approach will now be extended at scale to other parts of the bank."
To better equip the workforce for a technology-first future, DBS has also committed to retrain 7200 employees, providing them with new skillsets across a range of emerging technologies in AI and machine learning, design thinking and data analytics.
Piyush Gupta, DBS CEO, says: “As the way we live, bank and work continues to change dramatically, we must address the magnitude of the disruptions before us. We are prepared to radically transform the way we work by introducing a comprehensive range of measures which include implementing a permanent hybrid work model, flexible work arrangements and deploying more agile squads while creating workspaces that will help to supercharge ideation and collaboration. We will also accelerate our employee upskilling agenda at scale and ingrain the use of data-driven operating models across the bank. By implementing these measures, we believe that Team DBS will emerge as a confident future-ready workforce.”