Women at Work, Live and Play
6 March 2008
Media Release
1 NTUC Women’s Development Secretariat (WDS) is gearing up to make March a meaningful month for all women – at work, live and play. With more women wanting to return to the workforce, there is a greater need to ensure that women are able to balance their priorities at home and at work.
Women at Live – Survey on Usage and Attitudes on Worklife Harmony
2 NTUC WDS recently commissioned a survey on Usage and Attitudes on Worklife Harmony. The key purpose of the survey was to provide NTUC WDS with an insight into employers’ views on worklife programmes and initiatives so that it can better formulate effective strategies and outreach efforts when partnering with companies to implement part time and flexi-work options.
3 A total of 200 companies took part in this survey – 100 from Singapore 1000 and 100 from SME 500 . 46% of the companies had more than 100 employees in their organisation, the rest had less than 100 employees. In 130 (64%) of the companies surveyed, more than 75% of employees were Singaporeans and Permanent Residents.
4 The survey measured worklife harmony practices such as Leave Benefits, Flexible Working Arrangements , and Employee Support Schemes . The survey’s key findings showed that after implementing worklife harmony programmes at the workplace, 1 out of every 2 companies were able to continue to tap on their pool of talent, especially women and mature workers. The companies also found worklife harmony initiatives beneficial as these helped boost employees’ motivation and morale (75%), had a positive effect on company branding (69%) and produced happy employees (66%).
5 Moving forward, NTUC WDS will use the survey findings to finetune its outreach efforts to encourage more companies to embark on worklife harmony programmes and flexible working arrangements for their employees. In fact, the recently launched Flexi-Works! funding programme is one such tool that companies can tap on to introduce more flexi work options for workers.
Women at Play – International Women’s Day Celebration
6 On 8 March 2008, Saturday, NTUC WDS and the Singapore National Co-operative Federation will organise the International Women’s Day (IWD) Celebration 2008, which incidentally is the 100th anniversary of IWD. To be held at Bishan Park’s Grand Lawn II, the event themed “Women’s Health Fiesta” will have a mass workout and fun walk, carnival game stalls, and sports and health exhibitions. About 4,000 women and their families are expected to participate at this event with Mr Lim Swee Say, Secretary-General, NTUC and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, as the Guest-of-Honour.
Women at Work – 3-in-1 Flexi-Works Recruitment Drive
7 To assist more non-working women who are able to work to enter the workforce, WDS is organising a 3-in-1 Flexi-Works Recruitment Drive on 24 March 2008, Monday. Comprising a pre-employment briefing, job readiness training workshops and job fair, the 3-in-1 Flexi-Works Recruitment Drive aims to better help women jobseekers find employment.
8 This initiative aims to reach out to women jobseekers who are looking for part-time or flexi-work arrangements by partnering with all five Community Development Councils (CDCs) to reach out to their residents island-wide and create opportunities for these women jobseekers to return to the workforce more easily.
9 This initiative will start off with a pre-employment briefing for jobseekers to be held on 17 March 2008, Monday, at the NTUC Auditorium. This briefing will help prepare jobseekers, motivate them and increase their readiness to return to work. They will also be briefed on the type of jobs available, the requirements of the work, and some of the terms and benefits they can expect.
10 Following the briefing, a job preparation workshop will be held on either 19 or 20 March 2008 (Wednesday or Thursday) at each of the respective CDCs to enhance jobseekers’ personal and employability skills such as interview skills, grooming tips, and specific work skills that may be required by the various employers.
11 The recruitment drive, to be held on 24 March 2008, Monday at e2i (Employment and Employability Institute), will feature companies that only offer part-time or flexi-work arrangements. On-the-spot interviews will be conducted for the women jobseekers.
12 Women who are interested to attend the briefing can call the registration hotline at 6484 4244 from 10 March 2008, Monday. Registration for the briefing will close on 14 March 2008, Friday.
NTUC WISE
13 NTUC WDS recently launched NTUC WISE – Women’s Interactive Series – a series of events aimed to deepen the engagement and increase networking and interaction with women on various topics that are close to their hearts. The next NTUC WISE in April will be a dialogue session on CPF Minimum Sum top-ups for spouses.
14 In conclusion, women form an integral part of Singapore’s society and have made great strides over the past few decades. Today, they are better educated and more are joining the workforce. However, there are still challenges faced by women in Singapore in fulfilling both economic and traditional roles, as they find the need to balance the competing priorities of work and family . Thus, the NTUC is determined to help those who subsequently wish to return to the workforce find employment through its various programmes and initiatives.
For more information on NTUC WISE, please contact NTUC Women’s Development Secretariat at 6213 8573 or email ntucwds@ntuc.org.sg.
Mdm Halimah Yacob
Deputy Secretary-General, NTUC
Director, NTUC Women’s Development Secretariat
