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. 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 sqm, the equivalent of over eight-tenths of a football field, it operated until June 2017. The library shifted to its current 10,900 sqm location at Our Tampines Hub in August 2017.