To boost productivity, Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) has been quick to tap Employment and Employability Institute’s (e2i) Inclusive Growth Programme (IGP) to enhance its Point-Of-Sales (POS) system and a new mobile application for use at the Singapore Zoo.
This collaboration was also made possible with strong support from The Singapore Manual & Mercantile Workers Union (SMMWU). Said Wildlife Reserves Singapore Director of Human Resource Lim Kai Huat: “We were very excited after hearing the presentation from NTUC’s e2i. We realised that the e2i IGP funding could potentially help us offset the initial costs of our productivity initiatives / projects. This allows us to share the productivity gains with the staff upon the execution of our initiatives/projects.”
Under IGP, NTUC’s e2i will be funding WRS 50 per cent, amounting to $100,000, for the improved POS system, and about 40 per cent, amounting to $150,000, for the mobile application. Said NTUC’s e2i Chief Executive Officer Ang Hin Kee: “The Government recently announced that Singapore’s tourism industry will receive a big boost over the next five years to prepare the sector for the next stage of growth. Even before the announcement was made, NTUC’s e2i has already started working with companies in the attractions and tourism sector like WRS to help them improve operation processes to enhance visitors’ experience and increase productivity in the parks.
“As a result of the improvements, workers also see their wages go up. We will continue to reach out to more companies in the sector so that more can hop on to the productivity bandwagon and our workers can have better jobs.”
In the spirit of IGP, WRS looks forward to sharing the benefits gained from these improvements with its workers. Said Mr Lim: “We are where we are today because of the hard work from our staff. We have a fundamental belief that our staff should be rewarded - be it in monetary terms or through the benefits we offer. We are looking forward to sharing the productivity gains from our initiatives/projects with our staff who deserve this. We are extremely glad for the support from our union SMMWU and e2i’s IGP funding to make this a reality.”
To have management partners who always have the staff’s well-being in mind also comes as a great comfort to the union who attribute this to the strong LMR foundation that is in place. Said SMMWU Singapore Zoo Branch Chairman Michael Marshall: “This is not a relationship that was built yesterday or today… Even before this type of gain sharing initiative came about, it has always been the view of the management that the staff should be rewarded, not always in monetary terms, but in several other ways… it has been a long establishment. We don’t have a problem like when we can’t see eye to eye we must fight. We can pick up the phone, we can talk, we can discuss.”
| A Hassle No More | ||
With various POS systems for different businesses in different parks (18 Retail POS and 37 F&B POS) and multiple sales transactions taking place at the Singapore Zoo, closing accounts is often a tedious process. At the end of each shift, cashiers will have to submit a sales report accounting for all cash, NETS and credit card sales, and this data is then manually keyed into the accounts system when it reaches the finance department. With these details, a Profit and Loss statement can then be generated along with other reports from further data entries. This is a long drawn process that can take up to a week, and it is a process that involves a large number of people which makes it susceptible to human errors. With the new improved Point-Of-Sales (POS) system on one single platform, this process that normally requires one week to complete can now be done in three days. The new system will link up all POS machines with the central finance system, and as cashiers key in transactions it will automatically be entered into the central finance system as well. All the cashiers need to do at the end of the day is to file the receipts and submit them to the finance department to verify that the figures tally and sign off. This new system would cut down the manual labour process and reduce the incidence of human errors. |
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| Learning More With A New App | ||
Visitors with iPhones and iPads can now look forward to a whole new exciting experience when they visit the Singapore Zoo. A new mobile application, targeting to launch this year, will be available to assist visitors in learning more about the animals and understand the wider conservation message. In addition, the Augmented Reality (AR) feature of the application will enable visitors to locate facilities and amenities in an interactive and self-directed manner. With just a single click on their iPhones or tablets, visitors are able to navigate the park with an interactive GPS map. Visitors will also be prompted to participate in the scheduled animal shows and participate in promotions at in-park locations. This idea was conceptualised with different audiences in mind, some wanting to have bite-sized information in a nutshell while others may prefer to learn more about a particular animal and its surrounding issues. Thus, this new application will be able to cater to different audiences that visit the zoo,ensuring an enriching and interactive visitor experience. |
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