Employers can look forward to new enhancements to the Age Management and Work-Life Grant under WorkPro to implement quality health programmes and flexible work arrangements for their mature workers.
Senior Minister of State for Health and Manpower Dr Amy Khor announced these new enhancements which will take effect from 1 July 2014 at an Age Management Seminar held on 18 June 2014. The Age Management Seminar is organised by tripartite partners- the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA), NTUC, Singapore National Employers Federation(SNEF) and Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP).
To cement their collaboration in promoting healthy workplaces, WDA and the Health Promotion Board (HPB) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to launch a new standardised Health and Wellness Programme which will be covered under the Age Management Grant. The programme will serve to identify suitable health-related workshops for mature workers.
WDA and HPB will also introduce the Workplace Health Promotion (WHP) Facilitator’s Course under the Age Management Grant. This course will now be a pre-requisite for employers adopting the grant. All employers that tap on the Age Management Grant will be required to send one staff for the WHP Facilitator course on health management knowledge and techniques. The staff will be equipped with the expertise to conduct health assessments and the skills to plan, design, evaluate and improve workplace health programmes.
The Work-Life Grant will also be enhanced to encourage more employers to implement flexible workplace arrangements (FWAs) which help to facilitate the attraction and retention of workers. With the new enhancements, employers will be eligible for a $10,000 incentive to pilot new FWAs. Those who proceed to implement these FWAs company-wide will receive an additional $10,000. With the enhancements, employers will stand to receive a total funding of $40,000 for implementing new FWAs, including reimbursement of expenses incurred during the pilot and company-wide implementation.
“We hope that this will motivate more employers to come on board, and foster more flexible and work-life friendly workplaces to benefit their workers and their businesses,” said Dr Khor.
In addition, the Work-Life Grant will also cater to different levels of FWA utilisation. Currently, employers receive up to $40,000 a year if they have 30% of their workers utilising FWAs. With the enhancements, there will also be a cash incentive of up to $25,000 per year for employers who have 20% of workers using FWAs. Employers can potentially receive up to $120,000 in total if they sustain or improve FWA utilisation rates over three years.
Since its launch, a total of over 1,000 companies have come on board WorkPro to improve their workplace practices. This in turn benefitted over 4,800 mature workers and back-to-work locals.
