Launch of Work-Life publication “WORK! LIVE! PLAY!” – The Scandinavian and Singaporean Experiences on Enhancing Productivity through Work-Life Innovations
1. I am pleased to extend a warm welcome to everyone to the launch of the NTUC Women’s Development Secretariat’s publication “Work!Live!Play! The Scandinavian and Singapore Experiences on Enhancing Productivity with Work-Life Innovations”. Let me first give the background and context to this publication.
Statistics – Progress in the Implementation of Flexi Work
2. A 2008 MOM survey, which covered 3,000 establishments employing 840,000 employees, showed that there has been a steady increase in the proportion of private sector companies with flexible work arrangements. The number increased from 16.4% in 1998 to 20.9% in 2004 and further to 27.5% in 2008. It also showed that part-time was the most common form of Flexi work accounting for 22.6% of all companies in 2008. This was followed by staggered working hours (3.7%), flexi-time (2.8%) and teleworking/telecommuting (1.3%). Also, companies in the services sector are more willing to provide flexi work accounting for 34.2% compared to those in the manufacturing (19.4%) and construction (15.5%) sectors. Furthermore, large companies are more likely to have flexiwork. In 2008, 38.4% of companies employing more than 200 employees provided some form of flexi work, compared to 25.3% in smaller companies employing less than 99 employees. However, although 27.5% of companies provided from some form of flexi work in 2008, only 7.4% of employees benefitted from flexi work.
3. These statistics show that although there has been progress in promoting flexi work, there is also much more that we need to do. Often, the issue is not just a lack of will power but also a lack of experience. A WDS survey conducted in 2008 confirms this point when some companies responded that they do not plan to implement any form of flexi work. Of these, 72% of those who surveyed indicated that flexi work does not fit their business hours, 59% indicated manpower constraints when trying to implement flexi work, and 55% indicated that flexi work is not suitable for small companies.
Live! Work! Play! – two objectives
4. Objective1: Hence, the first reason why we decided on publishing Work! Live! Play! is to showcase companies in Singapore that have successfully implemented family friendly practices and flexi work. The publication, therefore, highlights the experiences of 11 companies from both the private and public sectors. In selecting the companies, we have also included some from the non services sector, such as Natsteel, to show that there is scope to increase flexi work in all sectors, as currently such options are still largely found in the services sector.
5. Essentially, what we wanted to show is that creating a family friendly environment and providing flexi work are doable. It results in not only happier and more satisfied employees, but, is also good for the bottom line of companies as the stories of these 11 companies show. It is apparent that one outcome of work life initiatives and flexi work is to help create sustainable companies with sustainable performances. Just as we now realize that for our own long term sustainability, we cannot exploit but must nurture and protect our environment, the long term sustainability of companies depend on helping their employees develop life long sustainable performances. In other words, contribution to the workplace must be viewed as a long distance running and not just short spurts to glory which just as quickly fade away. If employees frequently have to make painful choices between work and family, there is no way that they can contribute towards creating high performance organizations, today’s buzzword, and even if they could it would not be sustainable on a long term basis. In the end this would have an impact on productivity with high absenteeism or turnover rates.
SingPost
6. One of the companies that WDS has been working very closely with to promote flexi work is SingPost. SingPost has a large proportion of female employees in its workforce including part-time and flexi-work staff. SingPost’s staff has also benefitted from several pro-family policies such as teleworking and lateral job transfers if the need arises. Mrs Sapiah Mohd Affandi is one such example. Mrs Affandi has been with SingPost for over 30 years. An Assistant Vice President for Property Management, Mrs Affandi had wanted to leave the company two years ago to spend time with her family when her grandchild was born. She had also thought of pursuing personal interests such as volunteering in social work. Upon understanding her needs, SingPost reviewed the nature of her work and facilitated a 3 day work week arrangement for her. With the support from her staff and colleagues as well as the use of technology, such an arrangement has worked well for her and her department. Mrs Affandi can continue to contribute to the company while pursuing her interests. SingPost’s understanding of its employees’ needs and aspirations at different stages of their lives as well as their willingness to exercise flexibility at work has allowed them to retain valuable employees and create a win-win situation for both employer and employee.
7. Objective 2: Our second objective in producing this publication is to share the Norwegian, Danish and Swedish experiences as we have often been asked about the experiences of other countries. Although not every aspect of the Scandinavian experience may be applicable to us as theirs is essentially a tax funded system and they do pay high taxes, it is nevertheless insightful. Compared to Singapore which has a female labour force participation rate of 56%, their labour force participation rate is much higher averaging about 76%. But this has not been achieved at the expense of their fertility rate which is much higher than ours. So, they provide an interesting case study on how to achieve better work life integration.
8. In April this year, the NTUC WDS had collaborated with the embassies of Denmark, Norway and Sweden to organize a seminar attended by 500 participants. The seminar was supported by the Singapore National Employers’ Federation and the Ministries of Manpower and Community Development, Youth and Sports. This publication captures the key learning points arising from the seminar and gives us some ideas on how we could achieve a better balance. One example that is common in all Scandinavian countries is the high level of support that women find in care-giving arrangements. Child care facilities, for example, are widely available and a high percentage of young children are placed in child care centers allowing their mothers to go out to work. In Denmark for example, about 90% of children between the ages of one to five are in day care centres.
9. Work! Live! Play! also provides a description of the work-live initiatives that are championed by the tripartite partners in Singapore. These include the Tripartite Committee on Work-Life Strategy set up in September 2004; Child Development Co-Savings Scheme introduced in April 2001; Enhanced Marriage and Parenthood Package 2008.; Flexi-Works! Fund initiated by the Singapore Workforce Development Agency and administered by the NTUC WDS for companies to hire new workers on part-time or flexible work arrangements; Work-Life Works (WOW) Fund introduced in 2004 and administered by MOM to help defray costs incurred by companies while introducing work-life measures; WDS’s Little Ones @ Work initiative that brings children to their parents’ workplace; Women Interactive Series (WISE) that engage female union leaders and members, professionals and Back-to-Work women; and Employer Alliance on Work and Family jointly set up by SNEF and MCYS to spearhead the adoption of work-life practices in companies. Although they all have a common objective, there are now so many schemes that it is not easy to get a grip on all of them. This publication hopes to provide some assistance.
Conclusions
10. Work! Live! Play! is another effort of NTUC WDS to promote work life integration and flexi work in Singapore. We need to do a lot more to push such initiatives so that more women can continue to remain in the workforce and many more can be attracted to return to work. Since we started our Back to Work programme in 2007, we have been able to place about 4000 women in various jobs across the sectors. But flexi work is a common request that we receive from the women. There is now an even greater urgency to push up the female labour force participation rate. Looking at the huge presence of foreign workers in Singapore today, we know that we cannot continue to push up the numbers without serious implications on our society. So, we need to do more to fully utilize our women as a rich manpower resource. Economically, our lower female labour force participation rate is certainly disadvantageous to us. In the 2009-2010, World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report, Singapore moved up to third spot in the competitiveness ranking but our lower female labour force participation rate continues to be a drag as we were placed at 84th position out of 133 countries.
11. On a more specific note, looking at the statistics, we need to be more strategic in our efforts. First, we need to look at how to provide more support and assistance to the smaller companies as they tend to lag behind the bigger companies in providing work life initiatives.
12. Second, companies should widen the options available to women other than just part-time work to include teleworking/telecommuting. With the vast improvements in IT, there is less reason now not to introduce teleworking since there are tangible benefits for companies such as reduced staff turnover and actual savings in office space and other costs. If companies cannot consider putting a female employee on 100% telecommuting, but can allow part of the work to be done through telecommuting such as one or a few days in a week as some have already done so, would still be very useful.
13. Third, we need to expand the number of employees who are covered under flexi work as although the number of companies has increased the number of employees covered remains quite small at only 7.4%.
14. Finally, we need to make quality child care arrangements even more accessible to women. The MCYS has announced that it would be increasing the number of child care centres in Singapore which is a good development but we need to also study whether other options are possible.
15. At WDS we will continue to work with our tripartite partners is order to push for work life integration and flexi work as these are important elements of our work. Through exploring new innovations and strategies, we hope that our workplaces will become more conducive for building resilient families and supporting procreation.
16. I hope that Work! Live! Play! will provide good insights to our employers on how to introduce or expand work life integration in their companies.
17. Let me conclude by thanking the media for your presence here today to cover the launch of this publication. I would also like to thank the Norwegian, Danish and Swedish embassies and the 11 companies whose stories in implementing flexi work are captured in this publication. A special thanks also go to our NTUC News team who helped us to put together this publication, in particular Naseema Banu and Shirley Oehlers, for the their contributions.
Thank you.
