By Ramesh Subbaraman
After more than a decade of healthy growth driven by higher workforce expansion and lower productivity gains, Singapore has switched gear towards quality growth.
NTUC Secretary-General Lim Swee Say emphasises that this growth should be driven by a slower workforce expansion and higher productivity gains.
Determination to succeed
Speaking at the 6th Business Excellence Global Conference organised by SPRING Singapore, SG Lim said this is a major shift and the country is determined to succeed.
This, he said is a more sustainable way for businesses to grow profitably, workers to have better jobs, better pay and better careers, and for the Singapore economy to remain competitive and attractive in the globalised economy.
SG Lim explained: “As we go through this economic transition, there are twin challenges and they go hand in hand. One is to slow down the expansion of our workforce from higher workforce growth to lower workforce growth. In the last three years, we are more or less there, and we have been tightening the labour market.
“At the same time, as we slow down workforce expansion, we have to improve on our productivity gains. In that regard, we are making some progress but we are not quite there yet because our target is to achieve a two to three per cent overall productivity gain per year.”
Productivity improvements
He explained that while the workforce expansion has slowed down, productivity has improved but it has not reached the target two to three per cent annual productivity growth.
Therefore, the challenge in the year ahead is to place greater focus on increasing productivity gains.
He elaborated: “On the whole we know what needs to be done; we know that every sector has to find ways to improve their productivity, sectors with lower productivity levels have to reduce the labour intensiveness.
“At the same time, we have to find ways to position our businesses and industry towards the future. Our challenge is to continue to bring in more early adopters and then multiply their success so that over time we can spread this process of innovation to more sectors and companies.”
Emulate early adopters
SG Lim said the successes scored by the early adopters are very important as it gives the confidence to improve productivity gains.
With the support of the various government agencies and the Labour Movement, SG Lim is confident that more companies will embark on the journey of innovation and productivity.
For companies to speed up innovation and sustain productivity gains, SG Lim suggests finding ways to strengthen customer satisfaction and enhance employee engagement.
By doing so, companies can create additional revenue and higher productivity can be derived.
Source: NTUC This Week
