The NTUC Women's Development Secretariat (WDS) held its bi-annual Back2Work with U Job Fair, which primarily targeted women job seekers, for the year at the new e2i (Employment and Employability) campus at Jurong.
Some 2,000 jobs vacancies from 12 employers in various sectors, including call centre, education, food & beverages, healthcare, hospitality, retail and more, were available at today's job fair.
Going the Extra Mile
To deepen its outreach to female job seekers, WDS went the extra mile to assist more women return to the workforce by working with employers to remove obstacles faced by these job seekers.
One key fear women have in returning to the workforce is unfamiliarity with their workplaces and job scopes. To address their concerns, WDS tapped on successful runs of its mobile recruitment vehicle “Jobs on Wheels for U” to bring job seekers to selected employers’ premises, where site tours and briefings will be conducted by employers to help them better understand their job scopes and work environment.
Additionally, they are concerned with balancing family needs and work demands. Thus, more support is required for female job seekers who face difficulties in looking for jobs due to their family commitments, as it will enable them to remain in the workforce if they are able to harmonise their time and commitment between work and family care.
“Many women job seekers who have been out of the workforce for some time, are worried that they may not be able to fit into their new workplaces or are unable to perform new tasks. By helping them learn more about their possible future work environment, it will help ease worries and help them to better decide if the jobs are suitable. To enhance their employability, we also support them with pre-training to refresh or acquire new knowledge and regain their confidence to return to the workforce. Ultimately, we hope this could also further improve the employment rate of female workers in Singapore,” Ms Sylvia Choo, Director of WDS commented.
About the Back2Work With U Job Fair
Some 680 job seekers attended the job fair and among them, over 80 pre-registered job seekers visited three different companies, namely Fairmont Singapore and Swissôtel The Stamford, SATS Limited and SP Services Limited, to gain valuable first-hand knowledge and experience of the jobs available there.
WDS also organised two sessions of the Employability Camp (EC), which spanned across two days, prior to the job fair to help these female job seekers better prepare themselves for the job interviews and work at these companies. During these sessions, they were provided with information on the different sectors and given tips on how to do well for job interviews at the job fair.
Enlightened Companies With Friendly Workplace Adjustments
Enlightened companies at the job fair, like Mothercare and Fairmont Singapore and Swissôtel The Stamford, have initiated friendly workplace adjustments to encourage women to return to the workforce. For example, Mothercare aims to be the world's most caring retailer that cares for both customers and employees. As a specialist retailer for pregnancy and new born needs, the company recognises the challenges that new parents faced on parenthood. This is especially true for working mothers who have to balance between work and her child.
Mothercare is piloting a new work arrangement that supports working parents with flex-working hours. Currently, its Customer Care service team is being managed by a group of working mothers who are being scheduled based on the hours that they can commit to. The employees enjoy flexible working hours that allow them to come in to work later after sending their children to school or leaving work earlier to be home in time to prepare dinner.
It is also common that the company's frontline retail employees are given the choice to be transferred to back-end office duties in an event that they are no longer able to commit to retail working hours. Mothercare's commitment to flexi-work arrangement have opened up a new recruitment channel to tackle the current labour crunch.
Another example is Fairmont Singapore and Swissôtel The Stamford, which brought about 40 employment opportunities with flexi-work arrangements from various departments like housekeeping, laundry, and others for job seekers during this job fair.
Being one of WDS' WorkPro employers, Fairmont Singapore and Swissôtel The Stamford is receptive to hiring matured and women workers as well. The company has also embarked on various initiatives to make jobs easier, safer and smarter (ESS) for its workers.
Through these efforts, WDS wants to help more women back to work so that they can earn a living and augment the workforce. WDS urged employers to be more flexible and innovative when it comes to recruitment and job design so that this potential pool of economically inactive women can help to ease the labour in Singapore.
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