Representing employers, but with a heart and empathy for workers – We talk to Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) Executive Director Koh Juan Kiat, a leader who believes in achieving win-win outcomes for all.
I see tripartism as a verb – with the Government, the Labour Movement and employers working and acting together to secure win-win-win outcomes. It is the belief that together, we can make Singapore and the lives of Singaporeans better.
This has been achieved through many years of building a collective vision and trust among the three partners.
Create and provide opportunities for workers to upskill throughout their working lives so that they can earn better wages, find satisfaction in what they do and know that they are making a contribution to the society and Singapore.
I would say many. Each and every opportunity I’ve had to meet and talk with union leaders who conveyed their dedication and passion to improve the lives of workers, further strengthened my resolve to work with them.
When SNEF first started on this, we conducted a survey to show to employers that there is much to gain from work-life balance. They could benefit from increased productivity, less absenteeism and higher morale.
Over the years, what started out as family-friendliness has now evolved into a business strategy to attract and retain talent to support business growth.
When it was first touted in 2006, re-employment was a very new concept. Only Japan had introduced it two years earlier and their law only came into effect in April 2006. The tripartite partners did a lot of work to prepare employers and workers for it, after tripartite consensus was reached in 2007 to legislate re-employment. When it was legislated in 2012, re-employment was implemented smoothly.
We often say that we do not have natural assets and we only have our people.
Well, our people are ageing and we must do our utmost to enable everyone to contribute to the economy, as long as they are willing and able to.
In August 2019, the tripartite partners announced a 10-year plan to raise the retirement age and re-employment age to 65 and 70 respectively by 2030.
However, changing the law alone is not sufficient to raise the employment rate of older workers. The tripartite partners have also made other recommendations to help more older workers to stay in the workforce.
For example, we need to ‘re-career’ and reskill workers, especially those in the 40s and 50s, to help them keep pace with business transformation so that they can have a longer working life.
Also, many older workers want lower work intensity after reaching their retirement age. Hence, employers must make part-time re-employment an option to continue to harness the skills and valuable experience of their older workers who may otherwise choose to retire.
There is also the opportunity for employers to implement the portable medical benefits scheme to better manage the medical costs of an ageing workforce as well as to help employees save more for post-retirement healthcare expenditures.
We have to adapt our strategy. For example, during the current crisis, we have to make e-learning available and we need to do this more pervasively. In April 2020, SNEF was able to convert 80 of our 200 training programmes onto the e-learning platform. Likewise, NTUC LearningHub has introduced many online courses during the ‘circuit breaker’ period.
Many companies are also re-assessing their business models and modus operandi. Some are realising that they can operate leaner than they thought possible. During this period, there could be more incentives to invest in technology and skills upgrading so that we are not only prepared for the recovery, but we are going to be better at what we do or we are going to do things differently.
