Today, the Labour Movement launched its inaugural Flexible Work Arrangements (FWA) Conference & Exhibition, which brought together 10 different FWA-enabled companies from various industry sectors and IT-solutions vendors.
Themed “See How, Know Why, Try Now”, the FWA Conference & Exhibition showcased success stories of flexibility at the workplace creating a win-win for both employers and employees, why FWA should be implemented and how it can be done, through the presentation of an exhibition segment, sharing by invited speakers and a panel discussion with selected company representatives.
Participating companies comprise both the multi-national companies and Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The key intent is to highlight that regardless of company size, all companies can put in place different forms of FWA that suits the company and the industry. The participants are thus able to emulate and learn from these success stories, and bring these back to their workplaces.
“Many SMEs out there have the impression that it is difficult to put in place FWA as we are especially susceptible to the issue of labour crunch. SSTC thought otherwise, and took a bold step with the implementation of FWA and stresses the importance of having a family-friendly culture at the workplace. Our positive returns are higher employees’ satisfaction, success in staff recruitment and retention which further boost morale of employees,” commented Ms Rose Yeo, founder and CEO of SSTC School for Further Education Pte Ltd.
The FWA Conference & Exhibition, organised by the NTUC Women’s Development Secretariat (WDS), is in line with the earlier launch of the U Flex Movement which saw a FWA-only Flexibility Works! Job Fair and the launch of the hunt for second-year-running Best Companies for Mums Contest. Some 200 participants comprising union leaders, tripartite partners, management partners and human resource practitioners registered and attended the conference & exhibition.
Advocating for flexible work arrangements (FWA) continues to be one of the key thrusts of NTUC WDS. “We will continue to push out a series of FWA-related events and workshops organised by WDS, as part of the U Flex Movement. Through these channels, we hope to educate and raise awareness amongst companies and employees on FWA. The barrier lies in the mindset, and if either party is willing to take the first step to make some adjustments to their workplace practices and accept flexibility in the workplace or to request for adjustments to be made to their work arrangements, FWA can definitely be a win-win solution for both employer and employee,” said Ms Sylvia Choo, Director of NTUC WDS.
The U Flex Movement advocates for employers to offer FWA so as to empower their employees to excel at work and in their roles and aspirations on top of the workplace. This, in turn, enables employers to retain good employees and increase companies’ competitiveness.
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