Half or approximately 49%, of the Singapore workforce is considering leaving their employer this year, according to the first annual Work Trend Index from Microsoft Corp.

The Index focuses on hybrid work trends during the pandemic including such as employee needs for continued flexible remote work, leaders being out of touch with how employees are faring and high productivity masking an exhausted workforce.  

According to the report, more than 82% of workers in Singapore want flexible remote work options to stay, but 66% also want more in-person time with their teams. Business leaders in Singapore are also recognising the workplace evolution and 62% of them are more likely to redesign office space for hybrid work.

The research also found that 51% of leaders in Singapore say they are thriving right now – whereas only 27% of employees without decision making power say the same, highlighting a 24% gap.

Meanwhile, 58% of workers in Singapore feel overworked and 49% feel exhausted, suggesting that high productivity does not equate to a healthy workforce.

“In Singapore, we recently moved from being allowed to return to the workplace, back to where working from home is once again our default,” Joanna Lim, Modern Work and Security Business Group Lead, Microsoft Singapore, said. “As businesses adapt to the disruptive change, business leaders must recognize that long-held assumptions no longer hold true with their employees. They must now make choices that will impact their organisations for years to come.”

“Business leaders now need to dig deeper to think about shaping their culture to attract and retain talent, foster collaboration and innovation, and deliver on the extreme flexibility that employees need,” said “What’s interesting is that our customers are already starting conversations with us about creating evolving hybrid workplaces, and we anticipate having more of such engagements in the coming months as we help customers to respond and thrive in a hybrid world of extreme flexibility that is built on innovation and centered on employee experiences, collaboration and security.”