Talking Points
Good morning , NTUC President, sister Diana, NTUC Secretary General brother Lim Swee Say, Ms Roslyn Ten, General Manager of TAFEP, sisters & brothers from the unions, awardees and guests. It is indeed an honour to be part of this award ceremony. As Singapore moves ahead with the 21st century workforce, I am happy to see that companies and organisations here today are also transcending into 21st century employers with your progressive workplace practices. I salute all the winners here.
U Flex Family-Friendly Grant
At NTUC’s May Day Family Fiesta celebrations this year, we announced that $500,000 would be set aside for U Flex Family-Friendly Grant to encourage companies to create place a holistic family-friendly workplace.
Therefore, apart from flexiwork arrangements, the UFlex Grant encourages companies to offer other forms of support such as Family Care Leaves for employees to care for a family member who is a dependent; eg an elderly or special needs child.
The Grant also encourages companies to implement Family Support Schemes which help employees ease their family care responsibilities. For eg. Provision of lactation breaks, improvements made to existing breastfeeding space for breastfeeding mothers, subsidies for family care needs such as childcare subsidies and eldercare subsidies including medical benefits.
Today I am pleased to share that the grant is ready for companies who want to do more to help their employees better manage between the demands between work and caring for their families.
This pilot grant (effective from 1 Aug 2014) will be offered to 50 companies ($10,000) which want to embark or enhance their current employee programmes that support employees in caring for their families besides taking the work-life grant under the Workpro scheme. The schemes must be more than what is currently being legislated. Interested employers can go to the reception counter to find out more.
Best Companies for Mums 2014
With us today, is a group of companies which already understand the importance and enjoy the benefits of supporting their employees through their care-giving responsibilities. This group of companies have already embarked on the family-friendly journey to support their employees to be better care-givers and more effective workers through various flexible work arrangements (FWA), employee leave schemes as well as support schemes.
This year, the Best Companies for Mums added 2 new categories, namely Most Enabling Companies for Dads and Most Supportive Colleagues.
We do so because we recognise that it takes a community of support, from companies, supervisors, colleagues and especially from spouses and family to enable working mothers to continue having a career sustainably while also taking care of the family. We want to recognise companies which understand the important role working fathers play and do their part in empowering them in that shared parenting role so that their wives can remain in the workforce and establish a career of their own.
Intro to Feature Video
Other than exemplary companies for Mums and Dads, we are also here to recognise the exemplary support shown by supervisors and colleagues of working mums who have allowed them to continue in their careers while caring for their families.
While we encourage and even recognise companies for having enlightened policies in support of working mothers, we all know that it is the supervisors and the colleagues who make it work for them through their support. Whether it is covering for working mothers while they are childcare leave or supporting flexibility in their work schedules.
This is where the support of supervisors and indeed, team of colleagues come into play. In return, working mothers who have benefited from their support become more committed and engaged to helping to achieve the team’s goals. That’s their way of saying thanks for the support.
In the end, everybody wins. The company has more productive employees, the supervisor has an engaged team to work with and the colleagues support one another through work. It is this culture of trust and support among colleagues, between companies and employees, which makes working in these winning companies and with these individual awardees so rewarding.
I am heartened to know that the group of unsung heroes – Supportive Colleagues, is being recognised here today. And I thank you for having made that positive difference in your fellow colleagues’ lives.
As fellow working mums, I encourage you to continue delivering your best efforts to reciprocate the support given you by your companies, your supervisors and your colleagues.
Now we see for ourselves a snapshot of how these supervisors and colleagues have supported working mothers in the upcoming video feature, I urge more companies; supervisors and fellow workers to join the awardees in creating a family-friendly workplace so more mothers can remain in and return to the workforce. Thank you and Enjoy the video!
