Over the next three years, more than 1500 SingPost employees will benefit from training to increase productivity and service quality. This comes after the Union of Telecoms Employees of Singapore (UTES), and SingPost formed a company training committee (CTC) on 13 May 2019.
The formation of the CTC was formalised with an agreement signing between UTES, SingPost and NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute).
The formation of the training committee is supported by e2i, whose role is to help with training, improve productivity and enhance the capabilities of SingPost employees.
Employees who will benefit from the training committee include postmen, parcel ambassadors, service ambassadors and customer service officers.
A company training committee is an initiative implemented at company level between union leaders and company management.
Working together, the committee will assess skills development gaps in the company, articulate Worker 4.0 and training requirements for the company, drive company-based training programmes identified in the company's Worker 4.0 plan, and coordinate feedback for training improvements.
The CTC aims to equip the employees for their roles in the future logistics and eCommerce landscape. This will be done through a series of training programmes, courses, seminars and on-the-job training.
According to a joint media release by UTES, SingPost and e2i, the training programmes “will help SingPost employees embrace technology and adopt a more customer-centric mindset, and more importantly, equip them with skills for them to adapt to the shift in demands of the workplace today, and remain relevant in the job market of tomorrow.”
As a start to training frontline employees in their digital and customer service skills, the first batch of 60 postmen attended the SkillsFuture for Digital Workplaces course in April 2019.
UTES General Secretary Thuvinder Singh said: “UTES will continuously walk the ground to understand how our workers would be affected by technology and together with NTUC's e2i, we will work with SingPost to train and prepare workers for the future.
“As long as a worker has a positive mindset, is willing to embrace change and upgrade skillsets, he or she will be not be left behind in this transformation journey. UTES has been adopting the 3Cs approach with SingPost – Commitment, Constant Collaboration and Cohesiveness, to achieve a win-win situation at all times and will continue to do so moving ahead.”
SingPost Group CEO Paul Coutts feels that the training committee came at the right time, given the changing demands of the industry.
“As we see the demand shift from post to parcel in our business, it is even more critical to see our employees being upskilled so that they can be deployed flexibly into new or reconstructed jobs that may come their way, as SingPost continues to transform itself. With this programme, we will ensure that no employee, who is willing to retrain and upskill, will be left behind,” said Mr Coutts.
The initiative between union and company is in tandem with the Labour Movement’s focus to roll out training committees through the acceptance of technology, adoption of technology and actualisation of value by both companies and workers.
SingPost is one of the first few unionised companies in the trade and connectivity sector to form a training committee.
As announced by NTUC Secretary-General Ng Chee Meng in his May Day 2019 briefing, the Labour Movement will be working to establish CTCs in 1,000 companies across all six Industry Transformation Map (ITM) clusters by 2022.
The six clusters are manufacturing, built environment, trade and connectivity, essential domestic services, professional services and lifestyle.
More than 330,000 workers are expected to benefit from CTCs where training will be jointly developed by unions, training providers and institutes of higher learning in support of business needs.
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