The Economic Strategies Committee’s (ESC) recommendations for Singapore’s growth is for a productivity-driven as well as inclusive growth so that all workers across the entire economic spectrum stand to benefit from better skills and better wages.
The Labour Movement strongly believes that productivity and inclusiveness are not mutually exclusive. The two can and must co-exist if broad-based, sustainable growth is to be achieved. Hence, since the inception of its LM 2011 Vision in 2006, the Labour Movement has been aggressively pursuing the re-employment of older workers, the return of women back to the workforce, and the upgrading of skills, jobs and wages for contract and casual workers.
Under the NTUC Women’s Development Secretariat’s (WDS) Back2Work with U (B2W) Programme, the Secretariat uses its 3R – Recruit, Re-adjust and Retain – strategy to get more women back to the workforce, and increase the employment rate for economically inactive women who are considering coming back to work.
Recruit and Re-adjust
New Sectorial Approach
For 2010, WDS is embarking on a sectorial approach to attract more women back to the workforce. This sectorial approach places emphasis on filling jobs particularly those in the retail, hospitality, and food and beverage sectors, given the abundant employment opportunities in these sectors. Through these efforts, WDS wants to improve and increase the number of women it helps to be placed in jobs in these sectors.
According to the Ministry of Manpower’s Labour Force survey, as at June 2009, there are some 64,0001 economically inactive women, aged 30 and above, who intend to look for a job within the next two years. And for those employed, 81%2 are in the services sector.
WDS’ first sectorial job fair held on Wednesday, 31 March 2010 saw a total of 1,600 jobs comprising full-time and part-time or flexi-work vacancies for women job seekers from 16 employers in the hospitality, retail, and food and beverage sectors. The job fair was organised by the Tripartite Workgroup for Enhancing Employment Choices for Women.
Statistics3 have shown that more women tend to work in sectors such as wholesale and retail trade which employed the highest number of women, followed by public administration and education services, and hotels and restaurants.
More Targetted Placement Outcomes - Screen, Train & Place
Flowchart 1: WDS sectorial approach
To achieve a more targeted placement outcome, WDS also embarked on a concerted effort to screen and train job seekers (see Flowchart 1). But before that took place, WDS and its trainer decided that for them to better understand some of these job vacancies, it would be beneficial to get a comprehensive brief on the nature of these jobs. WDS then visited some of the employers to look at the various work environments and conditions. For example, some jobs that involve working in F&B kitchens are not as humid or warm as some perceived them to be.
Because of these visits and dialogue with employers, WDS was able to better organise customised mindset training, in-depth industry briefings and sectoral training for its job seekers. For the job fair, it has screened and prepared some 600 applicants in the hope that these women would stand a better chance of landing a job when matched to suitable employers for on-the-spot interviews at the job fair.
New Job Application Web Platform
WDS has also partnered with JobStreet.com to create a new job application web platform for women job seekers. This move enhances WDS’ efforts in helping women job seekers find employment. Not only will this value added service allow existing women job seekers in WDS’ database to have more access to information on the job requirements, it will also help WDS reach out to additional women job seekers. This will translate to better employment outcomes for both job seekers and the employers. The website address is www.wdsjobs.com.
Retain – Pilot a mentoring programme
New Mentoring Programme
To help retain back-to-work women in their jobs, NTUC WDS is piloting a mentoring programme with companies. It is up to the company to identify suitable and appropriate staff as mentors to new employees. Under a two-day course, participants will be able to understand the concepts and benefits of mentoring and thus inspire their employees’ potential for success and support the goals of employee retention. The course focuses on developing effective mentors who can act as coaches, advisors and counsellors to provide reinforcement and constructive feedback to the mentees for their motivation, development, performance and job satisfaction. The end result is developing high performing new hires and increasing the level of business performance.
Expanding Flexi Works! Fund – 4,500 part-time & flexi work jobs committed
WDS will also continue to outreach get another 150 companies to tap on the Flexi-Works! Fund4. To date, about 4,500 part-time and flexi work jobs for women have been committed by about 180 employers since the Fund was first launched in 2008.
WDS will also continue to promote work life integration initiatives among companies, and to encourage them to offer more family-friendly programmes such as flexi-work arrangements, Little Ones @ Work, and workplace health issues. These will help women cope better with work and family.
Conclusion
Even as the Singapore economy upturns from the global downturn, employers may start to find the job market tightening, they should consider how they can attract and hire more women to the labour workforce. In some sectors, employers should seriously consider re-designing their jobs and workflow to optimise manpower efficiency and productivity so that they can better employ women. On the other hand, women job seekers should be willing to adapt to different sectors and give themselves an opportunity to adjust to their new workplaces.
NTUC WDS will continue to work with tripartite partners such as the Employment and Employability Institute (e2i), Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) and Community Development Councils (CDCs) to organise Mindset Training, Job Preparation Workshops and Skills Training Programmes to prepare and equip these women with the necessary skills to assist them in their journey back to the workforce from job search stage to interview and then securing a job.
