SINGAPORE –The former Tampines Regional Library in Tampines Avenue 7 has been transformed into a satellite office facility as part of the Ministry of Defence’s (Mindef) “work-near-home” scheme.

It is now among four such facilities that provide secure shared working spaces for employees as part of Mindef’s efforts to keep pace with flexible working arrangements. Mindef and Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) employees can access the necessary networks and systems at these facilities, which they are otherwise unable to at home due to the security-related nature of their work.

The work-near-home scheme, called M-Works, started with a trial at the former Spring Singapore building in Bukit Merah and Chong Pang Camp in Yishun in April 2021.

The scheme has since been expanded to include sites at the Defence Technology Tower B in Depot Road in Telok Blangah in July 2022, as well as the old Tampines Regional Library in October 2023.

All four facilities can hold up to a combined 400 people. Across all four sites, the average monthly usage rate is around 75 per cent, Mindef told The Straits Times.

It added that the most popular facility is the one at Defence Technology Tower B, which sees an average monthly usage rate of between 80 per cent and 90 per cent.

Mindef said the initiative allows employees who enjoy working near home to reduce the time they spend commuting to the office, and provides hot-desking spaces for staff looking for a conducive space to work after attending meetings in nearby locations.

The former Tampines Regional Library gives employees an option to work in the east, on top of the other work-near-home spots in central and northern Singapore.

It was the first regional library in the country when it opened in 1994, at twice the size of a typical branch library.

With a floor area of around 6,000 sq m, the equivalent of over eight-tenths of a football field, it operated until June 2017. The library shifted to its current 10,900 sq m location at Our Tampines Hub in August 2017.

Responding to ST’s queries, the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) said the former library was returned to the state in January 2018. Several government agencies studied and explored potential uses for the site and it was allocated to Mindef in October 2021.

Mindef said it signed a 10-year lease that began in 2022 and will end in 2032.

Refurbishment of the facility – including the transformation of open areas into offices, collaborative spaces and meeting rooms – began in 2022, to prepare for its opening in October 2023.

The Tampines satellite office, which can seat about 100 people, has amenities such as individual workstations, quiet pods designed for calls, four-seat work booths, enclosed discussion rooms, each with a capacity of four to six people, enclosed meeting rooms that can fit groups of 10 to 20 each, and various large tables for group discussions.

The workspace is configurable due to the use of collapsible walls between selected meeting and discussion rooms, as well as moveable furniture. As such, the facility is commonly used to conduct large training sessions and town halls.

Mindef and SAF employees can book a seat or room for anywhere between half an hour and an entire day via a dedicated website.

Among them is Ms Kelly Sim, an assistant director at Mindef’s corporate finance management branch. The 37-year-old appreciates the convenience, as her home is within a 15-minute walk from the facility.

As the commute to her office at the former Spring Singapore Building takes more than an hour via public transport, she prefers working from the Tampines facility at least once or twice weekly.

This lets her spend more time with her children, aged three and nine, after work, as she can pick them up from her parents’ home in Tampines at about 5pm, two or three hours earlier than the days she works from the office.

Ms Sim noted that it is “quite easy” to book a seat at the facility, and she usually does so minutes before she walks from her home to the site. But she added that she would need to book discussion rooms several days in advance and meeting rooms two weeks ahead.

Lieutenant-Colonel Adam Lim, deputy director of people operations at Mindef, said: “The start of the circuit-breaker (lockdown) measures during the Covid-19 pandemic has seen a shift towards flexi-work arrangements for employees, especially for those in administrative jobs. While work-from-home became an option, we felt the need to better support our employees where they can work at satellite office locations closer to their home.”

He added: “This work-near-home arrangement can help improve work productivity and reduce commuting time, while ensuring that workplace relations and team collaboration are not compromised with such flexi-work practices.”

For the other satellite offices, Mindef’s lease at the former Spring Singapore Building will end in March 2027. Chong Pang Camp and Defence Technology Tower B sit on Mindef-owned land.

Asked why it has two work-near-home facilities – the former Spring Singapore building and the one at Defence Technology Tower B – that are so close to each other, Mindef said it observed very high demand at the first site, which led to the other site being rolled out.

On the deciding factors behind the launch of a work-near-home facility, Mindef said it looks at usage rates, evaluates feedback from employees to understand their needs, and examines the general distribution of employees’ homes.

Asked if there are plans to expand the scheme, it added that it will continue tracking the usage of current sites before considering its next steps.