22 Sep 2010
1 Under the NTUC Women’s Development Secretariat’s (WDS) 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.
2 As Singapore’s growth depends on the growing services sector, the current employment scene will move towards one with more shift work job positions. Particularly for women who are considering entering or re-entering the workforce, they can consider shift work or part-time shift work.
3 The latest employment data from the Ministry of Manpower showed the labour market remains tight, especially in the services sector. For employers, they may 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.
4 Typically many jobs in the services sector require shift work. For employers to attract more women to shift work, they have to ensure that they offer attractive compensation, and consider a range of perks and benefits. Another important component is the ability to offer fixed or permanent shifts. Lastly, the co-operation from colleagues and management is crucial such as having colleagues turn up for their shifts on time and being flexible to swap shifts during emergencies.
5 These factors showed up through a series of focus group discussions commissioned by NTUC WDS. The bottom line is that both job seekers and employers need to have an open mindset and come up with creative solutions to shift work for a win-win outcome.
Focus Group Study on female shift workers
6 NTUC WDS commissioned a research firm to conduct a study on female workers in Singapore, in particular, current and former shift workers. The key purpose of the study was to provide WDS with a general profile of women who are engaged in such type of work, and to find out the advantages as well as challenges of shift work. WDS could then consider ways to work with employers to make shift work more appealing to current shift workers as well as potential female job seekers.
7 Four focus group discussions were conducted comprising a total of 32 women aged between 23 and 54 years old. Three of the groups were women who were currently employed in shift work while one group comprised former shift workers. All of them were Singaporeans and Permanent Residents.
8 Advantages of working shift for job seekers or current shift workers (positive attitude towards shift work)
9 However, many of the younger shift workers did highlight that they would switch to a 9-to-5 job when they start a family. Some would still remain in their shift jobs if they have help with childcare or if their partners work shifts or fixed shifts.
10 Besides being prepared to adapt physically to shift work such as adjusting to a different sleeping time and pattern, shift workers also had to take some time to communicate the idea of shift work to their spouse and/or children as well as relatives and friends because of their shift work, they may be sometimes not able to attend family and social gatherings.
11 Challenges (some reasons why job seekers shun shift work)
Job Fair
12 WDS’ second major job fair held on Wednesday, 22 September 2010 saw a total of 1,000 jobs comprising full-time and part-time or shift work vacancies for women job seekers from 12 employers in the healthcare, hospitality, retail, and food and beverage sectors.
13 To achieve a more targeted placement outcome, WDS conducted two job preparation sessions to screen and train job seekers. For the job fair, it has screened and prepared some 150 applicants in the hope that these women would stand a better chance of landing a job when matched to suitable employers for on-the-spot interviews at the job fair.
14 From the responses by the participants in the focus group discussions, it can be seen there are advantages of doing shift work. Employers, moving forward, should consider the suggestions offered from the focus group study and look into how they can come up with better solutions to attract more women job seekers to consider shift work. For job seekers, WDS will continue to encourage them to adopt an open mindset and attitude when seeking shift work opportunities.
15 Besides employment, WDS will continue to promote work life integration initiatives among companies, and to encourage them to offer more family-friendly programmes such as flexi-work arrangements, Little Ones @ Work, and workplace health issues. These will help women cope better with work and family.
Mdm Halimah Yacob
Deputy Secretary-General, NTUC
Director, NTUC Women’s Development Secretariat
