Vietnam’s Remote Work Push: A Practical Guide for Employers on What to Do Right Now

By Valerie Ong, Regional Marketing Manager, Reeracoen Vietnam|  17 March 2026

On 9 March 2026, Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade issued a directive calling on businesses across the country to allow employees to work from home wherever feasible. The instruction came in response to an accelerating fuel crisis triggered by the US-Israeli war on Iran, which has severely disrupted Middle East energy exports — a region Vietnam depends on heavily for fuel imports.

The numbers are stark. Since the conflict began, gasoline prices in Vietnam have surged 32%, diesel is up 56%, and kerosene has risen 80%, according to Petrolimex, the country’s largest fuel distributor. Vietnam has fewer than 20 days of petroleum reserves, and the government’s Task Force on Energy Security — established by Prime Minister Decision No. 385/QD-TTg on 4 March 2026 — is meeting daily.

For employers — particularly FDI companies managing large office-based or hybrid workforces across Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi — this is not just a logistical challenge. It is an HR and talent management question. How you respond in the next few weeks will signal to your workforce what kind of employer you are. This guide gives you a practical framework for acting quickly, fairly, and effectively.

Sources: Petrolimex, Vietnam Ministry of Industry and Trade, Reuters, VnExpress, Fortune (March 2026)

Why This Matters for Employers — Beyond Fuel

The government’s remote work directive is voluntary, not mandatory. But the context it creates is significant. Employees spending more on fuel to commute — or who cannot get fuel at all — are already stressed. For FDI employers, being seen as indifferent to this is a real reputational and retention risk.

Reeracoen’s Hiring Manager Survey 2025–2026 found that work flexibility consistently ranks in the top three factors Vietnamese professionals consider when evaluating a job or deciding whether to stay. 80.3% of hiring managers already cite salary expectations as their primary retention challenge. Adding commute cost and fuel stress without a visible employer response compounds that equation unnecessarily.

The employees who feel supported during a crisis are also the ones who stay when the crisis passes. The business case for acting now is clear.

Step 1: Assess Which Roles Can Go Remote — and Which Cannot

The first action is a rapid role audit. Not all functions can work remotely, but most organisations have a larger proportion of remote-capable roles than they realise. The framework below gives you a starting point.

Framework based on Reeracoen Vietnam operations data and role classification guidelines.

Step 2: Put a Policy in Writing — Even a Simple One

One of the most common mistakes employers make during a sudden shift to remote work is treating it as informal. ‘Just work from home for now’ creates ambiguity around expectations, accountability and pay — and ambiguity breeds anxiety, particularly among employees already under financial pressure from rising fuel costs.

Your policy does not need to be long. It needs to answer five questions clearly:

1. Who is eligible to work from home, and for how many days per week?
2. What are the working hours and availability expectations for remote employees?
3. How will output and performance be measured while remote?
4. What equipment, connectivity or allowances will the company provide?
5. How long will this arrangement last, and what triggers a review?

A one-page document that answers these questions, circulated by your HR team and endorsed by leadership, is sufficient to establish clarity. Speed matters more than comprehensiveness at this stage.

Step 3: Equip Your Managers to Lead Remotely

For many Vietnamese employees and managers, working from home at scale is unfamiliar territory. A significant proportion of Vietnam’s FDI workforce last had sustained remote work experience during the COVID-19 restrictions of 2021. Since then, most companies have returned to full or near-full office attendance.

The managers who will struggle most are those who manage by presence. Remote work requires a shift to output-based management. The minimum viable approach:

• Set clear weekly deliverables or objectives for each team member, agreed at the start of the week.
• Hold a brief daily or every-other-day team check-in (15 minutes, video on) to maintain cohesion and surface blockers early.
• Establish a single communication channel (Teams, Slack or equivalent) as the team’s primary working space.
• Resist the temptation to over-monitor. Tracking login times and screen activity is counterproductive and signals distrust.

The Retention Opportunity Inside the Crisis

Companies that respond well to this moment — with genuine flexibility, clear communication, and visible concern for employee wellbeing — will find it strengthens loyalty and employer brand. This is not a small thing in Vietnam’s current hiring market, where 80.3% of employers already struggle to compete on salary alone.

Reeracoen’s Beyond the Paycheque 2026 employee sentiment study found that flexible work arrangements are one of the top three non-monetary factors that Vietnamese professionals consider when evaluating a new role, and one of the top two reasons they cite for choosing to stay with a current employer. The fuel crisis has created a moment to demonstrate that flexibility is real, not just a line in your EVP.

Handle this well, and you create evidence you can use in future hiring conversations. Handle it poorly, and you create a reason for your best people to take calls from recruiters.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Vietnamese government’s remote work directive mandatory?

No. The Ministry of Industry and Trade’s directive issued on 9 March 2026 is a recommendation, not a legal requirement. It calls on businesses to ‘encourage’ remote work ‘wherever feasible.’ The decision to implement, and the scope of any arrangement, rests with individual employers.

Do we need to pay employees differently if they work from home?

Under Vietnam’s Labour Code, remote work arrangements do not automatically require a change in base salary. However, employers should review whether any existing travel or transport allowances need adjustment — either removed if commute costs are eliminated, or replaced with a home office or connectivity allowance. Clear written communication to employees on any changes is important.

How do we manage productivity for remote employees?

The most effective approach is output-based: agree on weekly deliverables, hold regular check-ins, and use a shared project or task management tool. Avoid monitoring tools that track keystrokes or screen activity — these undermine trust and rarely improve output. Focus on results, not activity.

What should we do for employees in roles that cannot go remote?

For manufacturing, warehouse, logistics or frontline roles where physical presence is required, consider alternatives: staggered shift times to reduce peak commute costs, subsidised fuel or transport allowances (even temporarily), or flexible start and end times that allow employees to avoid traffic peaks. Acknowledging the difficulty explicitly through direct communication matters.

How long is the fuel crisis expected to last?

The duration depends on developments in the US-Israel-Iran conflict and global oil markets. As of mid-March 2026, global crude oil prices remain volatile, with analysts estimating $140 per barrel if supply disruptions persist. The Vietnamese government has removed import tariffs through end of April as a stabilisation measure. Employers should plan remote work arrangements with a 4–6 week horizon while keeping policies flexible for extension.

Related Articles

You may also find these useful:

• Vietnam FDI Hiring Surge Q2 2026: Which Sectors Are Growing Fast and Where the Talent Gaps Are
• Hybrid Work in Vietnam 2026: What Employees Actually Expect — and Where Employers Are Getting It Wrong
• Mid-Year Appraisals in Vietnam 2026: How Employers Can Retain Top Talent

About the Author

References

• Vietnam Ministry of Industry and Trade — Remote Work Directive, 9 March 2026 — moit.gov.vn

• Prime Minister Decision No. 385/QD-TTg, Energy Security Task Force, 4 March 2026 — chinhphu.vn

• Petrolimex — Vietnam fuel price data March 2026 — petrolimex.com.vn

• VnExpress International — ‘Ministry urges businesses to allow work from home to save fuel’, 9 March 2026 — e.vnexpress.net

• Fortune — ‘The Iran war is reviving remote work across the world’, 12 March 2026 — fortune.com