Helping women return to the workforce is just one of the many goals NTUC’s Women’s Development Secretariat (WDS)has achieved. Now, WDS has another achievement to add to its list as companies come forward to offer home-based work opportunities, an initiative that WDS has been actively promoting, Halimah Yacob, for women keen on returning to the labour
workforce.
WDS’ first major job fair for 2011 held at The Plaza @ National Library building on 23 March 2011 saw five out of the 18 participating employers offering home-based jobs for women who are looking for a more flexible work arrangement.
According to WDS, 30 jobseekers of the 850 that turned up for the job fair were either hired or considered for a second interview by the five participating employers - Abry Pte Ltd, express In Music, SP Services Ltd, LinkingHeartz and NTUC Income.
Speaking with the media at the fair, NTUC Deputy Secretary-General and WDS Director Halimah Yacob said: “At today’s job fair, we have companies that offer full-time jobs and we also have part-time jobs. We also have jobs that provide flexible work options and a small number of jobs that offer home-based work. In fact, this last segment is one we are trying to expand because this is the area that is least developed in Singapore.”
WDS said employers should offer more flexi-work arrangements which include looking at home-based part-time positions for women who have care-giving responsibilities. WDS added that businesses could also consider redesigning jobs to make the work more attractive to the women and at the same time offer a fair renumeration package and work benefits.
DSG Halimah said companies should leverage on the home-based work segment in Singapore especially with the labour crunch. WDS urged employers to be more creative so that they can better tap the potential pool of economically inactive women who want to return to the workforce.
DSG Halimah said: “...there are many companies screaming for workers. There are just not enough workers. Now with the tighter restrictions on using foreign workers, I think certainly we could do more to explore the use of women and to explore home-based work.”
An informal survey of 300 women job seekers conducted by NTUC WDS revealed that 39 percent of the respondents registered for the job fair because of home-based opportunities with almost 60 per cent citing childcare and eldercare reasons for wanting to work at home.
NTUC WDS has been actively promoting the home-based work which is in line with the Government’s push for flexi-work arrangements and will be partnering more employers who can offer home-based work using ICT.
DSG Halimah added that the Tripartite Workgroup on ICT-enabled Home-based Jobs that was set up last year is looking at ways to leverage on ICT and have a few recommendations to make to help the smaller companies create jobs.
