Commentary

Traditional institutions need to utilise constant, real-time data flow that generates insights on the fly. 

As we continue to experience economic uncertainty across the world, the Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) region hasn’t been spared from the volatility. 

Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, hybrid work arrangements have become the norm globally for organizations across industries. Locally, a strong majority of Singapore companies (78%) are leaning towards maintaining a hybrid schedule, according to recent data from Milieu Insight. At the same time, employees are far less enthusiastic about going all-in on one work environment, with only 12% prefer working from the office all the time and only 10% wanting to work remotely full-time.

The current global pandemic serves as a sobering reminder for organisations to assume unexpected disruptions can occur anytime and plan accordingly. When the World Health Organisation first declared COVID-19 as a global pandemic, merely 12% of organisations believed their businesses were highly prepared for the impact of the virus. As the outbreak unfolds, organisations that neglected the emerging risks were caught unprepared and hit with a hard lesson, as they find themselves playing catch up and losing ground to companies that were better prepared.

A Survey of Financial Services Firms.

By mid-June of 2021, more than 2.4 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses had been administered to populations in 180 countries, according to data collected by Bloomberg. While that may be encouraging news on its face, a return to ‘business as usual’ remains a distant and uncertain prospect; though COVID transmission rates are down in some countries, they have skyrocketed in others, causing yet more rounds of lockdowns and bringing economic activity to a virtual halt.

Employee engagement and wellness is key to ensuring employers thrive, and that technology has a major role to play