M1 refreshes 10 Gbps fibre broadband plan

Singapore's M1 is announcing a refreshed fibre broadband plan designed to deliver greater flexibility and choice. 

The new M1 10 Gbps fibre broadband plan is priced at S$34.90 per month for a 24-month contract and includes:

- Complimentary, 24-month mobile broadband (Bespoke SurfValue)

- A home fixed voice line 

- Free registration (worth S$61.04) 

- Free optical network terminal (ONT) activation (worth up to S$123.41)

Router bundles now operate on a “choose what you need” basis, allowing customers to select from top-tier WiFi 7 routers:

- ASUS RT-BE92U (usual price or UP, S$399) at an additional S$9/month

- TP-Link Archer BE805 (UP S$799) at an additional S$10/month 

- ASUS ZenWiFi BT10 (pack of two, UP S$1,299) at an additional S$21/month

This flexibility ensures households enjoy tailored options that match their connectivity needs and budget. This refreshed offer provides direct savings for those already equipped with high-end routers and direct customisation for new buyers seeking to pair broadband with WiFi 7 devices.

Unlike traditional networks, M1’s fibre broadband plans run on a 10 gigabit symmetrical passive optical network (XGSPON), which enables symmetrical upload and download speeds of up to 10 Gbps. Apart from low-latency content sharing and high-definition video streaming on multiple devices, this boost in speed and performance will supercharge experiences for households with high bandwidth demands.

 

Details 

 

This 10 Gbps fibre broadband promotion is only open to eligible new or re-contracting customers without a current service contract. Full terms and conditions are available at www.m1.com.sg/home-broadband

 

28 September 2024

Six in 10 APAC companies report stable office attendance Sixty percent of APAC companies say office attendance is stable

A new CBRE survey has found that over 60% of companies in the Asia Pacific region say office attendance has reached a steady state, reflecting acceptance of flexible and hybrid working models as the future of work. About a third (32%) of firms expect office usage to increase, while 4% anticipate a decrease.

The survey highlighted that 43% of Asia Pacific companies have achieved a peak utilisation rate of 80% or higher. This trend presents opportunities for companies to recalibrate their workplaces to align with evolving work styles and attract top talent, CBRE said.

Unassigned seating (hotdesking and activity-based working) and collaborative spaces are emerging as effective ways to boost workplace efficiency, with companies are increasingly adopting flexible seating and higher desk sharing ratios to achieve this goal. Additionally, 49% of companies plan to expand their use of flexible spaces in the next three years, with interest in utilising on-demand event spaces, CBRE said. 

Cost remains a critical factor influencing both lease renewals and relocations. Among respondents, 50% cited better lease terms and rents as well as cost savings as the primary motivation for relocating to new offices. Despite these financial concerns, 58% of the companies are committed to enhancing employee experience and 45% focused on boosting employee productivity.

“Asia Pacific occupiers are seizing cost saving opportunities in tenant-favoured markets to upgrade to higher quality buildings in better locations with minimal cost escalation,” said Luke Moffat, Head of Advisory & Transaction Services, Asia Pacific for CBRE.

“Sustainability and wellness are another area of focus for occupiers. Therefore, the more proactive landlords are offering green building and wellness certifications, green lease clauses, electric vehicle charging stations, and various energy-saving features, the more they can attract occupiers to their assets.”

The survey found that 70% of companies want employees back in the office at least three days a week, with half aiming for a five-day workweek. Employees in Asia Pacific are showing slightly higher office attendance than requested as 73% of them reported working in the office at least three days a week. 

The survey also highlighted uneven office attendance throughout the week, with Tuesdays and Wednesdays seeing the highest attendance rates across the Asia Pacific, except in mainland China where attendance is the highest on Mondays. Fridays show the lowest attendance, suggesting that companies may need to implement initiatives to maintain vibrancy and engagement for those who choose to come in, potentially increasing turnout over time. 

“Companies should rethink how they measure and interpret office utilisation to accurately estimate current and future space needs,” said Ada Choi, Head of Research, Asia Pacific, for CBRE. 

“With hybrid work patterns leading to uneven attendance, it is essential to maintain a vibrant environment during off-peak times while accommodating maximum capacity without compromising the work experience.” 

Feature	Offer
Monthly price	S$34.90
Router	Optional add-on, from S$9/month
Mobile broadband (Bespoke SurfValue)	Complimentary 24 months
Registration fee (worth S$61.04)	Waived
ONT registration (worth up to S$123.41)	Waived
Home fixed voice line	Complimentary 24 months
Contract period	24 months

Source: CBRE’s 2024 Asia Pacific Office Occupier Survey. Infographic summarising key findings, including the use of unassigned seating, ESG and tech adoption, and cost factors.

*CBRE’s 2024 Asia Pacific Office Occupier Survey was conducted from 6 June to 12 July 2024, featuring insights from around 130 corporate real estate executives in the region.

Savills: Dubai is the No. 1 destination for executive nomads

The UAE has taken the top two spots in the Savills Executive Nomad Index this year. Dubai has retained its lead position for the 2nd consecutive year, while UAE capital Abu Dhabi moved from 4th place to 2nd this year. 

The Savills Executive Nomad Index ranks 25 destinations for long-term remote workers. All either have a digital nomad visa programme, or equivalent, or in the case of the US and European countries, are already part of a large economic bloc that allows free movement of people for living or work. 

They offer favourable climates year-round, a high quality of life and have established prime residential markets. Both Dubai and Abu Dhabi rank highly in several categories; however, Dubai has a large advantage in air connectivity, which places it ahead of Abu Dhabi overall. 

Dubai International, its main airport, is the world’s busiest for international passenger traffic. The recently announced Al Makhtoum airport expansion in Dubai will make it the largest airport in the world upon completion. 

“Dubai and Abu Dhabi are incredibly appealing to executive nomads, because they offer everything you need to thrive both personally and professionally, from modern infrastructure to high quality of life,” said Andrew Cummings, Head of Residential Agency - Middle East at Savills. 

“We’ve seen a real focus on creating a lively business environment where there are plenty of opportunities to grow, build networks and make lifelong connections.”

Source: Savills. The Savills Executive Nomad Index 2024 includes Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Bali as destinations.

“The more common digital nomad is symbolised by the young backpacker; however, executive nomads tend to be older and more likely travel with family in tow,” said Kelcie Sellers, Associate Director, Savills World Research. 

“This places a greater emphasis on the quality of life aspects that these top international locations can provide, such as safety and access to healthcare or education facilities. For these individuals, both physical networking and digital connectivity are important and must be accounted for. 

“Executive nomads are more likely to rent, and put an emphasis on extra space and proximity to local amenities. Prime rents have risen, on average, by 5% in the last year across the 25 locations monitored in the Savills index, with some urban markets seeing increases of more than 15%.” 

Also new to the 2024 Index is Bali in 12th place, the 1st and only Southeast Asian city in the index.

StarHub launches affordable home broadband plan

Source: StarHub. Poster for the StarHub 5 Gbps broadband plan.

StarHub will offer the first ever 5 Gbps broadband plan tailored for households in Singapore. 

Equipped with the latest fibre technology, this plan will ensure that customers can experience enhanced connectivity with less interference. The 5 Gbps broadband plan guarantees symmetrical upload and download speeds of up to 5x faster than a 1 Gbps broadband plan, ensuring smoother streaming experiences and uninterrupted online interactions. Gamers will also be able to engage in immersive gaming experiences without worrying about lag, StarHub said.

Created for higher-capacity usage, the expanded bandwidth of this plan will accommodate more devices to be connected effortlessly at the same time. Installations for customers will be provided at no added costs, StarHub said, with its Hubtroopers recommending the most suitable location for router placement in homes.

StarHub’s 5 Gbps broadband plan is available at a promotional price of S$45/month at all StarHub stores and online for a limited time. This plan will also include a Nokia Optical Network WiFi 6 wireless router, and complimentary Amazon Prime access for three months. 

Explore

Learn about bundle information at https://www.starhub.com/personal/broadband.html.

Poly and Debrett's release the etiquette guide for hybrid work

Source: HP. Debrett's has spoken on
hybrid work.

Poly, part of HP’s portfolio of hybrid work solutions, has partnered with Debrett’s, the authority on modern etiquette, to create a guide for global etiquette in the hybrid workplace.

Samir Sayed, MD, ASEAN, Korea, Emerging Markets & Pakistan for Hybrid Work Solutions at HP said, “The shift to hybrid work was so abrupt, we’ve not really considered how our behaviour should change to accommodate this new way of working. Should we be amending our behaviour to make hybrid work and hybrid meetings feel more normal? Thinking about how to make hybrid meetings feel more natural will create an equal meeting experience, whether people are in the room or dialling-in from home, which can come down to employers providing staff with the right technology and training.”

“With people increasingly splitting their time between the office and home, how we conduct ourselves at work has changed drastically,” says Liz Wyse, Etiquette Advisor at Debrett’s.

“It is clear that hybrid working offers many benefits, including greater flexibility and a better work-life balance. However, that’s not an excuse to let etiquette slip, and standards should stay the same regardless of where you’re working from. What’s the dress code when working from home? How do you eliminate distractions and present a professional façade online? This guide seeks to answer these questions so that both staff and employers can get the most out of a hybrid working arrangement."

Key takeaways from the guide include:

The royal wave

Ending a video call can sometimes feel a bit awkward. To make calls feel more friendly and inclusive, you can soften the abrupt finality of pressing ‘end call’ by giving colleagues a wave goodbye.

Avoid video motion sickness

Stay in a fixed position during video calls. Carrying your device while you answer the door or wander around the office during video calls risks giving your colleagues a bad dose of motion sickness.

No meeting munchies

You should try to avoid eating – you don’t want people to focus on the contents of your lunch rather than what you’re saying. It’s preferable to eat before you join a meeting.

Beware the danger of diversions

Your home is full of diversions. It’s all too easy to wander around doing jobs or making snacks, which ultimately distracts you from your job and impacts your productivity.

Eliminate virtual background clutter

Indulge in a little set-dressing before your call. Evaluate your video background. Try to eliminate chaotic bookshelves, discarded clothing, empty take-away containers and distracting artwork. You want your colleagues to focus on you, not your background.

Say no to stoic sickness syndrome

Do not struggle into the office if you have got a cough or cold or anything contagious.

No meeting multitasking

It’s inappropriate to multitask during meetings – for example looking at your phone. It is also very bad form to carry on working while on a call; everybody will realise your mind is elsewhere and hear the incriminating clatter of your keyboard.

Mute work mates

Noise in the office can be distracting when joining calls. It’s quite acceptable to politely ask your colleagues to keep their voices down and to turn down their radio or music.

Dress for success

People will choose to wear more relaxed, comfortable clothing when working from home, but it’s important to be aware of the psychological impact of truly letting yourself go. Aim to dress as if you are in the room with other meeting attendees.

Embrace long pauses

Don’t be alarmed by long pauses during meetings and scramble to fill them with chatter; they are an invaluable way of giving people space to interject or expound.

Explore

Get the guide here. 

View the associated infographic (PDF).

Deel: 12 work trends in 2023

Source: Deel playbook. 12 work
trends for 2023.

Deel, which provides payroll and compliance solutions for international teams, has researched emerging work trends, and come up with a full dozen for 2023:

Overemployed

First off, Deel said that remote workers are gaming the system by using flexible hours and asynchronous tools to juggle more than one job at the same time.

The Chief Remote Officer (CRO)

"The title of CRO is popping up on job boards everywhere," Deel has found. The company said most job descriptions entail all the elements around remote team setups, including hosting in-person events, detailing how to work in different timezones, compensation strategies, and internal communications tools.

Workcations

Working while travelling is now a reality and becoming the norm, said Deel.

Flex holidays

More workers are getting the power to decide which holidays to take instead of a one-size-fits-all calendar, Deel said.

Gen Flex

The latest generation (Gen alpha) has never even stepped foot in an office for work, Deel states, making virtual their reality. 

Flexetariat

Today’s workforce is putting flexibility and freedom at the top of their working requirements (and life). "Now more than ever teams are trading perks for the non-negotiable of being a Flexetariat," the company said.

Talent snatching

Despite ongoing layoffs, there is a bidding war for talent happening in parallel. "Some workers are finding themselves working at one company for only a few months before getting a more appealing offer elsewhere, oftentimes out of nowhere," Deel stated.

Sukima (隙間)

Young people are embracing sukima (gap) in Japan, according to Deel, turning free time into extra cash. New apps such as Jobcase, Timee and LINE Sukimani help match them with jobs like waiting tables or making deliveries, so there’s no time wasted; just money earned.

Casual e-signatures

With apps like BeReal on the rise, Gen Zers are skipping the pleasantries for more “authentic” sign offs and out-of-office (OOO) replies, said Deel. Look out for e-mail signatures like “Lukewarm regards”, “Another day, another slay”, and “In case of emergency, dial 911; not an emergency, try Google”, Deel predicted.

Pick-up parties

As fewer people are working from offices and together less in real life (IRL), people are finding new ways to connect. There are now in-person brand events called "pick-up parties", Deel said, where purchased products are collected in person at an event where the buyer can meet other likeminded people.

Career bouncing

Deel differentiated "salary bouncing" - jumping from job to job in under a year to increase salary with each jump - and "career bouncing", where a person moves from one career to a completely different industry, such as being a teacher and then a marketer, to determine which career is preferable.

Save-from-home

In a survey with Momentive, Deel found that people are saving more than ever thanks to things like reduced travel, food expenses, and increased salaries. More than 59% have increased their salaries and 64% said their savings have grown while working from home, the company shared.

Explore

Read the playbook

Employees are willing to compromise in exchange for flexible schedules, locations

Employees want flexibility in their schedules and working locations, not arbitrary hybrid work, and they are prepared to make compromises to get it, according to the ADP Research Institute’s People at Work 2022: A Global Workforce View report*.

Globally, the survey of almost 33,000 workers in 17 countries reveals that 50% would take a pay cut to guarantee flexibility in how they structure their hours – even if it meant the total hours worked did not change. In Singapore, over 72% would like more flexibility in their schedules even if they work the same hours. Nearly four in 10 in Singapore - 38% - would accept a pay cut if it means flexibility in working locations.

The conversation on flexible work is currently centered on whether companies should consider a full return to office, or continue with hybrid and remote working models. However, the People at Work 2022 data shows that employees value flexibility in planning their own schedules and working locations.

With remote and hybrid working models already widely adopted by Singapore companies, employers should consider what is the next level of flexible work and what employee benefits will retain talent in the years ahead. This could be in the form of implementing a four-day work week, allowing employees to curate their own schedules, or al owing employees to work remotely from overseas locations.

For certain industries, flexible working is an easy-to-implement alternative in the bid for talent. In Singapore, six in 10 employees are prepared to ask for a pay raise this year, yet Singapore is grappling with raising interest rates and supply chain issues on top of a talent crunch.

Yvonne Teo, VP of HR, APAC, ADP said: “For companies who may not be able to accommodate salary increases that top talent are asking for, being accommodating on flexible working could benefit when it comes to recruitment and retention.

“At the moment, while pay is an immediate concern for many workers, flexibility and work-life balance are very much front of mind too. This can help employers manage competing demands, at a time when attracting and retaining skilled, talented staff is one of the most business-critical issues of the day.”

Explore

Read the People at Work 2022: A Global Workforce View report.

*People at Work 2022: A Global Workforce View explores employees’ attitudes towards the current world of work and what they expect and hope for from the workplace of the future. ADP Research Institute surveyed 32,924 workers in 17 countries around the world between 1 November and 24 November 2021. This included 7,644 respondents in Asia Pacific (Australia, China, India and Singapore).

The survey was conducted online in the local language. Overall results were weighted to represent the size of the working population for each country. Weightings are based on labour force data from the World Bank, which is derived using data from the ILOSTAT database, the central statistics database of the International Labour Organization (ILO), as of 8 February 2022.

Employee productivity survey finds higher productivity earlier in the day

Milieu Insight, a consumer data and analytics company has asked employees how productive they are on a work day*, and found that they are typically productive for five to six hours a day, particularly in the first half of the day. 

- An average of 45% indicated that they are usually productive 5 or 6 hours a day

- Seven in 10 (72%) said that they are most productive from 8 am to 12.59 pm, whereas 19% chose 1 pm to 6.59 pm 

Milieu Insight recommends that managers give employees the time and space to complete urgent tasks, or those requiring concentration/flow in the mornings. If meetings are held in the morning, they should be time-efficient. Activities requiring less effort such as attending seminars and team-building activities are ideally be held after 1 pm.

Employees usually spend under an hour on non-work activities during the workday

- Seven in 10 (72%) indicated that they spend less than an hour on non-work activities

 - Social media is the top activity (64%), particularly in Thailand (72%); snacking (45%) and chatting with friends (36%) come next

- Almost a fifth (17%) also spent some time during their workday on housework as this is made possible by work from home (WFH) arrangements

Milieu Insight notes that managers cannot expect employees to be 100% productive every day, or
that all employees take breaks the same way. When asked if they prefer one long break in a work day, or scattered short breaks, responses were divided.

*Based on Milieu surveys with n=500 full-time employees each in Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam; conducted in January 2022.

Securing home networks is important when employees work from home

Trend Micro has listed a number of security considerations for businesses that enable their workforce to complete mission-critical tasks outside their main office. According to the security company, some of the biggest threats are related to employees' home networks, as well as networks at public places like coffee shops, airports and hotels.

Unsecured home routers, as Trend Micro pointed out in the Most Noteworthy Home Network Security Threats of 2017 report, are conduits for communications on all sorts of devices used for work and could potentially impact the entire enterprise network once the staff member brings the endpoint back to the office for work.

The issues include:

· Incorrectly configured networks, which can provide an open door for malicious actors.

· Default or weak passwords in use, as these are low-hanging fruit for hackers.

· Not keeping up with firmware updates, creating vulnerabilities.

Routers and other devices are also being leveraged for mining Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which Trend Micro calls "the most detected network event seen in 2017". Besides routers, devices found mining cryptocurrency included home computers (14,586), tablets (358), smartphones (981), game consoles (314), IP cameras (573) and printers (219).

"Cryptocurrency-mining malware, for instance, are capable of infecting devices to illicitly mine for cryptocurrency," Trend Micro researchers noted in the report. "Such malware can spread the same way other malware types spread, e.g., through spam emails and malicious URLs, and take advantage of the computing power of multiple devices to increase yield from mining."

Another threat comes through Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) capabilities in devices, which hackers are using to carry out brute force logins of devices operating outside the office. RDP technology allows someone to take control of a device remotely. While it is meant to be used for maintenance and troubleshooting, hackers can also use RDP to execute malware that could eventually spread to enterprise networks; steal user details, and find out who has control of what devices. Those with more privileges may then be targeted for a wider network attack.

Source: Trend Micro. Network diagram above a tablet.

"The risk lies in the network, when a hacker is able to gain access to the RDP without the user admin knowing," Trend Micro researchers explained. "The home network is where all the connected devices and stored data lie."

In one real-word instance, an employee took his work laptop home, where his daughter used the device to check her email. One infected message that she opened contained Sircam, which infected the laptop and then the corporate network after the laptop was brought back to the office.

Luckily for the employee and the small business he worked for, the infection was spotted on the company network and systems were disconnected before it could spread further or damage machines. The instance did result in downtime for the company, during which the network had to be cleansed and employees were unable to access mission-critical assets.

Explore:

Read the blog post from Trend Micro, and check out Trend Micro's report