Mdm Kay Kuok, President, Singapore Hotel Association,
Ms Margaret Heng, Executive Director, Singapore Hotel Association,
Mr Abdul Subhan, President, FDAWU,
Mr Tan Hock Soon, General Secretary, FDAWU,
Mr Alex Sim, Chairman, Productivity Committee, FDAWU,
Comrades and Friends,
I am very happy to join you for the SHA/FDAWU/NTUC Productivity Seminar. Let me first congratulate the 38 winners of this year’s “Employee of the Year” Award. I am sure your companies and fellow workers will be very proud of you.
Going beyond the normal call of duty
I asked for information on all the award winners to get a feel of what you have done to merit this award. And I must say that I was most impressed. It is clear to me that all of you went far beyond your normal call of duty and are truly deserving of this award. The consistent factor that has shown up is how all of you have made your hotel guests feel special and at home. For example, we have the case of Ms Faridah, an F& B supervisor at Copthorne Orchid Hotel, who personally took care of a handicapped, wheel chair bound guest for the entire five days of her stay at the Hotel. We also have Berry Tandy, an assistant reservation manager with Quality Hotel, who went out of her way to help an elderly couple find alternative accommodation when, due to a mix up by the agent, there was no room available for the couple at Quality Hotel. I am glad that our hotel employees are doing their part to make hotel stay a delightful experience, an important factor if we want to attract more travelers into Singapore as there is very keen competition in the travel and hotel sector.
Maintaining High Service Standards
Because of globalization, easy air travel and technological advancements, customers today have a whole range of choices and have very high expectations. Having new, modern and impressive-looking hotels alone is no longer the key comparative advantage. Singapore is not the only country with top class hotels. I am sure you have found that beyond providing comfortable rooms, good facilities and fantastic food, increasingly hotels have to compete on intangibles, such as service quality and consistency, branding and customer experience. Customers and reputation can be lost if poor service is rendered and visitors go away dissatisfied or with unpleasant memories. Hence, a dynamic and service oriented hospitality industry is an imperative.
In the area of service, we have done quite well. Just this month, the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) and the Institute of Service Excellence at SMU (ISES) released the findings of the Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore. This is the first ever national customer survey where 12,000 participants, both locals and tourists, were asked to grade hotels, restaurants and other service providers. Singapore scored 68.7 out of 100, not far behind South Korea and US which scored 72 and 75 respectively. The results also showed that out of the eight key sectors reviewed, consumers were most happy with the tourism, hotel and accommodation services sector, awarding it 71 points. I must say kudos to the management and staff of our hotel sector for their good performance and I urge everyone to keep up their good work.
Training and Skills Upgrading
To continue to excel and uphold good service standards, hotels need well trained and experienced staff. The hotel business is a people business. Hotels deliver most of their services through face to face human interactions. Guests expect hotel staff to be competent, friendly and service-oriented. They also expect knowledgeable, adaptable and empowered workers who can respond to the guests’ different requirements without having to check with the superior on every occasion. To equip staff with the knowledge and skills to meet these requirements and look after guests, hotels must invest in the continuous training of workers. They must nurture a highly skilled talent pool to sharpen their competitive edge. For workers, this would ensure that they will remain employable and can continue to earn better wages.
To prepare the tourism industry for the major developments that are set to transform the tourism landscape, a Tourism Talent Plan (TOTAL) was jointly launched in October last year by the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA), the Ministry of Manpower and the STB, under which the Singapore Government committed $360 million over three years to train 74,000 tourism industry workers. I would like to encourage the hospitality sector to leverage on these opportunities. I also urge our workers to take advantage of the many opportunities that are available to upgrade your skills and remain employable.
Attracting and Retaining Talents
Even with these opportunities, manpower recruitment and development will continue to be a challenge in the hotel sector. Employees today are looking for more than just a good pay package. To attract and retain talent, hotels need to build their reputation as employers of choice and also re-look at their human resource practices to appeal to an increasingly mobile workforce.
To address this, hotels here have taken the lead in cultivating talent in the industry. For example, Royal Plaza on Scotts, has recently introduced schemes such as FlexiWorks to attract and tap into the skills of homemakers and mature workers to address its manpower needs. This is indeed most commendable and I hope that other hotels will follow suit. I am prepared to work with any hotel that wants to introduce a similar scheme.
And, in order to make tourism a career choice among locals, a Tourism Careers campaign is underway to create awareness, enhance the attractiveness and showcase the exciting and rewarding careers in the tourism sector, as well as motivate people to join this vibrant and growing industry. The initial response has been encouraging. At the Career 2008 exhibition held earlier this year, some 30,000 visitors showed a keen interest in tourism jobs and courses and about 12,000 resumes and job applications were submitted to the exhibiting companies in the tourism sector.
Conclusion
Worldwide the travel and tourism industry is widely regarded as a growth sector and major creator of jobs. The long term prospects of the industry remain bright. In 2007 Singapore welcomed 10.3 million visitors registering a growth of 5.4% over 2006. This is the highest annual visitor arrivals recorded for the tourism sector. We are progressing well towards achieving our Tourism 21 vision of attracting 17 million visitors and generating $30 billion in tourism receipts.
Let me, once again, take this opportunity to congratulate all our award winners. I also wish to congratulate SHA, FDAWU, the hotel management and workers for your commitment and drive in making Singapore a destination of choice for travelers and in providing good jobs for our workers.
Thank you.
