By Fawwaz Baktee
Since its launch in 2010, NTUC’s e2i’s (Employment and Employability Institute) Inclusive Growth Programme (IGP) has been helping companies push for higher productivity to help achieve sustainable wage increases, and about three-quarters of them are Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
SMEs also employ around 70 per cent of Singapore’s workforce and contribute to about 50 per cent of Singapore’s GDP.
Touching on how the IGP can be an effective tool to help these companies address their manpower and productivity challenges to remain competitive, e2i’s CEO Gilbert Tan said: “The manpower crunch will put pressure on companies to pay higher wages to retain and attract workers. For wage increases to be sustainable, companies need to push for more and greater productivity improvements through jobs re-design or tapping on technology.”
One SME that has tapped on the IGP initiative is Food and Beverage (F&B) company Eighteen Chefs. The company’s founder, Mr Benny Se Teo, believes that the programme has given them an edge in the highly competitive F&B industry.
“Tapping on IGP definitely improves our productivity. For example, we used to spend hours preparing our 64 degrees eggs. Using a sous vide machine, we are able to reduce the manpower needed to do the job, and at the same time create a perfect product, with much time saving,” said Mr Se Teo.
Other Solutions
e2i has also been enabling SMEs through a slew of employment and employability solutions.
“SMEs need to be able to operate from a lean manpower strategy, and to build their Singaporean Core as a foundation for their business success.
e2i has also been working closely with SMEs to help them on their manpower needs, upgrade their workers’ skills, as well as raise productivity. We also help to direct them to assistance schemes and provide integrated solutions,” said Mr Tan.
Reviewing Strategies
The institute also urged more SMEs to review their strategies to be “SkillsFuture-ready” and “JobsFuture-ready”.
“On one hand, they need to tap on technology to make sure their jobs are productive, lean, and of higher value-add. On the other hand, they need to ensure they can attract, train and retain a workforce with skills to fulfil these jobs.
These two, together, help SMEs to be competitive and profitable in the operating environment in Singapore. We have many support schemes and grants available, so it is timely for all SMEs to embark on their future-readiness journey now,” said Mr Tan.
Source: NTUC This Week
