Singapore: 55% of employees covered by after-hours communication policies, up from 48% in 2022

More Singapore employers are putting policies in place to manage after-hours work communication, but the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has not separately assessed how effective individual policies are.

In a parliamentary reply on 5 August, Acting Minister for Manpower Jasmin Lau said 55% of full-time resident employees reported in 2025 that their employers had policies governing after-hours communication, up from 48% in 2022.

The policies can include measures such as not expecting employees to respond to non-urgent messages until the next working day, or providing time-off-in-lieu when employees work outside regular hours.

However, MOM has not conducted a separate assessment of the effectiveness of individual policies, Lau said.

The response came to parliamentary questions from Dr Charlene Chen and Dr Hamid Razak on after-hours work expectations, digital connectivity and the implementation of workplace mental well-being guidance.

Lau said MOM monitors workplace practices related to after-hours communication, while acknowledging that mental health, family aspirations and fertility intentions are shaped by a broad range of personal, social and economic factors.

“Supporting work-life harmony plays an important role” in creating an environment that supports these aspects of Singaporeans’ lives, she said.

MOM will continue working with its tripartite partners to encourage workplace practices that support work-life harmony, including through the Tripartite Standard on Work-Life Harmony and the Tripartite Advisory on Mental Health and Well-being at Workplaces.

The issue comes as Singapore continues to examine how workplace practices intersect with employees’ family lives. The government has also established a Marriage and Parenthood (M&P) Reset Workgroup to develop a whole-of-society approach to better support Singaporeans in their marriage and parenthood journeys.

The latest data suggests that while after-hours communication policies are becoming more common, a significant proportion of employees may still work in environments without formal guidelines around digital connectivity beyond working hours.

For employers, the challenge is increasingly about defining what constitutes reasonable availability while maintaining productivity, employee well-being and flexibility.