1 According to employment data, the labour market remains tight in Singapore, especially in the services sector. Employers in the services sector find it a challenge to hire and retain local workers. They will need to consider how they can tap into the large pool of economically inactive women, and attract and hire more women to the labour workforce.
2 The NTUC Women Development Secretariat’s (WDS) message has always been that for employers to tap on the talent pool of women who have stepped out of the workforce to care for their families and now want to come back to work, these companies will need to exercise some flexibility and implement some form of flexible work arrangement at their workplaces.
3 Some 60 union leaders, led by NTUC Secretary-General Lim Swee Say, embarked on a Learning Journey to Sakae Holdings on Thursday, 25 November 2010, to gain insights to the creative solutions and support offered by the company, and the partnership it has with WDS to attract more women back to work.
Flexibility for workers, Productivity for company
Adjusting to workers’ schedule
4 In its bid to attract more women back to the workforce, Sakae Holdings is offering flexible working arrangements for them. As part of the Back2Work with U (B2W) Programme, Sakae has implemented changes to enable women to come on board more easily as part time staff. Instead of committing to working at least four hours per day including compulsory weekend shifts, women who join Sakae Sushi under the B2W Programme are only required to indicate their availability and the company would then roster their work schedule accordingly. Feedback received from the women under this Programme reflects that the flexible hours are a good arrangement as it helps them to be able to balance their commitment to their family as well as satisfy their desire to return to the workforce.
Guiding new hires
5 The company has also put in place a coaching and mentoring programme to help new hires, especially back-to-work women as some having been away from work for many years may face difficulties in adjusting to their new jobs and work environment. Sakae’s aim is to plan the transition back to work as seamless and as smooth as possible.
6 As such, when new staff join the team, meetings with the respective outlet managers and supervisors will be arranged to ensure new staff are adjusting well and are given appropriate coaching and mentoring. If there are any issues or problems, these can be surfaced to the HR department who will come in to work out a solution. Sakae also conducts mandatory orientation and basic training for all new staff whether they are full-time or part-time.
Improving productivity for Sakae
7 Having been able to implement flexible work arrangements, Sakae is also seeing the benefits. Besides being able to better attract and retain back-to-work women, they can also ensure that the manpower operations are also adequately met. For example, most of their back-to-work women staff choose to handle the peak lunch hours so for Sakae, they can better manage and roster their full-time staff for the peak dinner hours instead, and cater to the differing needs of the outlets accordingly.
8 Sakae decides to make these adjustments as they feel that generally, women have innate skills which are highly valuable in the service industry. The organisation values this group of women as potential employees for their adaptability and suitability for the industry.
Partnership with WDS
9 The NTUC WDS works with employers who want to recruit back-to-work women. Under its Back2Work with U (B2W) Programme, the Secretariat uses its 3R – Recruit, Re-adjust and Retain – strategy to get more women back to the workforce, and increase the employment rate for economically inactive women who are considering coming back to work. Since December 2007, WDS has assisted about 8,300 women job seekers in their job search. To achieve a more targeted placement outcome, WDS conducts job preparation sessions to screen and train job seekers.
10 In partnership with NTUC WDS, Sakae Sushi has recruited about 25 women job seekers for its operations in 2010. Moving forward, NTUC WDS will collaborate further with Sakae Sushi in customising recruitment efforts to benefit more women job seekers and the employer.
