Advocating for flexible work arrangements (FWA) has been one of the key thrusts of NTUC Women’s Development Secretariat (WDS). In celebration of this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD), NTUC WDS will consolidate its efforts and push for greater adoption of FWA in companies, and employees alike, through the launch of the U Flex Movement.
U Flex Movement
The U Flex Movement advocates for employers to offer FWA so as to empower their employees to excel at work and in their roles and aspirations on top of the workplace. This, in turn, enables employers to retain good employees and increase companies’ competitiveness. For a start, NTUC WDS hopes to raise awareness of the importance and benefits of FWA through the Best Companies for Working Mums Contest and Flexibility Works! Job Fair.
Flexibility Works! Job Fair organised by WDS and e2i
NTUC WDS, supported by NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute), will hold its inaugural Flexibility Works! Job Fair under the NTUC WDS Back to Work with U Programme as part of today’s IWD celebrations. Themed “FLEXIBILITY WORKS!”, today’s celebrations include a carnival at Downtown East, which gather over 1,000 union members and their families to join in a mass yoga workout session and enjoy a day of fun-filled carnival activities.
Arising from the recently announced Happiness Poll 2013 by NTUC’s Family Development Unit, the latter reiterated that more needs to be done to enhance the support given to working mums at their workplace. According to the survey conducted with over 5,200 respondents, almost half of the working moms polled prefer access to flexible work arrangements, and 40% called for a more family friendly workplace.
Recognising the important role of FWA in recruiting and retaining women at the workplace, 15 employers have come together to offer some 570 positions across various industries including healthcare, education, retail, security, F&B, etc at the job fair, which featured job vacancies with some form of FWA. Among these positions, some 20% are targeted at professionals, managers and executives (PMEs), which offer full-time employment with staggered working hours. One such employer is the Housing & Development Board (HDB).
Jay Gee Melwani Group, also one of the employers at the job fair, had launched an exclusive hiring scheme with NTUC WDS last year targeted at matured back to work women. Under the “Golden Girls Scheme”, women aged 45 years and above are employed as retail assistants on a 25-work hour basis, earning $1,000 per month, and are not require to work on Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays. A total of 41 WDS women job seekers were placed on this scheme in 2013 and majority continue to be employed with Jay Gee. This year, an extension to the existing scheme has been put in place to benefit a younger group of women (aged 30 years and above) who are looking to return to work.
Mr Danny Tan, Executive Director of Jay Gee Enterprises Pte Ltd, says, “At Jay Gee, we believe in offering diversified career developments for our retail staff. Today, life expectancy continues to rise and with the country’s rapidly ageing population, where the seniors are an integral part of our generation, Jay Gee is committed to promote mature employment engagement. We encourage the adoption of flexible work arrangements, job redesign in supporting the employment of mature workers and back-to-work locals. Capitalising on the mature workforces enables us to increase workplace diversity. Plus, the mature workers bring with them a wealth of experience, a strong work ethic and character to the job.”
Best Companies for Working Mums 2014
This year, NTUC WDS holds its second running for the “Best Companies for Working Mums” contest with two new categories added to the hunt – “Most supportive colleague” and “Most enabling company for Dads”. These two new categories acknowledge the support given by working peers to enable flexibility at work, and also the effort companies put in to enable working fathers to share their parenting roles with their working spouses.
Co-organised with the Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices (TAFEP), the contest aims to recognise and highlight different ways that companies can help their employees achieve better work-life harmony. The contest will also be able to draw out exemplary companies that other companies can look up to, and to share best practices of these companies who have excellent work-life and FWA. (For more information on the contest, please refer to Annex A.)
Moving forward
According to the 2012 Conditions of Employment Survey conducted by the Ministry of Manpower’s Research and Statistics Department, only 4 out of 10 companies offering at least some form of FWA in their workplace.
“Although 4 out of 10 companies may look insignificant, it is already an improvement as compared to only 35% of the companies offer FWA in 2010. WDS will continue to intensify our efforts to push for the adoption of FWA among employers and provide holistic support for the working women. We will also deepen engagement with employers to enhance their flexibility programmes, and collaborate with our community partners and stakeholders to bring better employment opportunities for women. We want to emphasise that FWA is not only helpful to women but it benefits the whole workforce,” said Ms Sylvia Choo, Director of NTUC WDS.
To better help employers to implement FWA, NTUC WDS is organising a series of FWA Workshops for both employers and employees to share strategies and ideas for implementing and requesting for flexible time at work. The successful implementation of FWA will contribute to a happier and more conducive work environment, and companies will be able to attract, motivate and retain dedicated, committed and happy female employees.
