By Ramesh Subbaraman
The Labour Movement has reaffirmed its commitment to help Human Resource (HR) Professionals grow in their careers and take on larger responsibilities in their companies for regional and even global roles.
Speaking at the Global HR Summit, NTUC Secretary-General (SG) Chan Chun Sing added that the Labour Movement sees its role as taking care of all working people in the country and to grow a strong Singaporean core.
The Global HR Summit was organised by the Singapore Human Resources Institute (SHRI) on 10 July 2015.
Reaching Out
SG Chan noted that NTUC reaches out to all workers traditionally through the union mechanism. However, that was just one channel.
The other two channels to reach out to workers are through the U Associate programmes, whereby NTUC partners various professional organisations, and through the HR community, especially for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
SG Chan said: “What can NTUC do with the HR community? We have two very simple goals. First, HR professionals are also working people – your growth and your development are just as important to NTUC as the growth and development of the rest of our workers in the various sectors of the economy.
“The second and perhaps more important reason is this. Many people in the SME sectors are not unionised and many of them may not have access to the services provided by the Labour Movement and this is where the partnership with the HR professionals come in useful.”
“Whatever skills sets you think you need, whatever capability sets you need, we would like to equip you and partner you. Because when you are successful, you help us to better take care of the workers. Then we will be successful and we as a Labour Movement will be able to better take care of our workers.”
A Sectoral Plan
Meanwhile, a sectoral manpower development plan is afoot for the HR Sector. Speaking at the SHRI’s 50th anniversary dinner on 10 July, Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say revealed that a Sectoral Tripartite Committee for the HR sector, comprising representatives from the tripartite partners, will be formed to develop the plan.
“A key initiative under the Human Resource Sectoral Masterplan is the development of a national professional certification framework for the HR profession. The framework will provide local practitioners access to global HR. certifications and will create more career and professional development pathways for HR professionals. It will also support the up-skilling of individuals.” said Minister Lim.
Mr Lim believes SHRI has a major role to play in the national SkillsFuture movement by mobilising the entire HR community to take better care and make better use of precious manpower resource as Singapore transits towards a more manpower-lean economy.
Source: NTUC This Week
