Congratulations TAFEP and NTUC WDS as this is their third collaboration together. WDS aims to advocate and support women with respect to their employment, employability, overall well-being and issues at the workplace. TAFEP promotes fair, responsible and merit-based employment practices which include encouraging employers to consider offering Flexible Work Arrangements especially for women with family responsibilities.
Introduction & Key Message: Don’t Quit Your Job!
1) Women often find themselves squeezed between the demands of work and the family. And they are usually the ones who give up their career to meet the demands of family care.
2) However, with the rapid advancement in technology, flexible work arrangement has become a viable and possible option for many job roles.
3) So, instead of simply quitting their jobs as the only option, women can take charge of their work-life issues by taking a more proactive approach and negotiate for a more workable outcome for them and their employers, spouses, children, dependents.
Survey Findings
Earlier this year, NTUC WDS conducted a research on the needs of working women. The survey took in the views of over 1,200 women and men almost 800 of whom are PMEs. The survey shows that…
Organisation Support
Conflict may arise when delegating work as superiors may work on the assumption that women, with their family care responsibilities, are not as effective at work. As such, women may be sidelined for higher positions or important portfolios at work. But if women are able to work flexibly and given more autonomy in managing their work schedule, have adequate support from spouses, they may then be able to excel both at work and still manage the family.
8. More than 85% of all respondents agree that spousal support is crucial for women to have a career.
But the question is how many spouses are offering enough support for their wives to excel in their career? So wives, start the communication with your other half. Ask for the help you need.
Past years, we have been outreaching to employers to create awareness for Flexible Work arrangements. Employers and HR practitioners have provided feedback that they need help with regards to managing the expectations of employees on flexi-work as well as the colleagues who may be affected by the new work arrangements.
We would like to focus on empowering employees to negotiate for flexibility at their workplace. Participants will be guided to work out for themselves, a viable proposal on how their request for flexible work arrangements can be seamless and also have a net positive effect on their organisation. They will then be equipped with solutions to considerations employers are concerned with such as possible communication lapses, work re-allocation and performance assessment, when they request for flexible work arrangements.
This workshop aims to empower you with the tools to negotiate the meeting of your own work-life needs. Learning to be proactive in asking for your needs to be met as while ensuring that organisation’s goals are not compromised creates a win-win positive working environment where women like yourselves can thrive and excel.
Earlier this week, the tripartite partners released the enhanced guidelines on fair employment practices which aims to make Singaporeans the core of Singapore's workforce and I hope this will also encourage more women to remain or rejoin the workforce thus contributing to higher Labour Force Participation Rate.
This is only the beginning of your exciting journey towards better work-life integration. I wish you all a fruitful and enriching workshop!
