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11 Jul 2012, 2.13PM

36 comments & replies |by REACH Administrator | Learn and Earn

In an effort to encourage more companies to promote flexible work arrangements, the Government will work on fostering such a workplace culture in the next two years. The Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) has conducted pilots in the areas of home-based work and setting up of smart work centres. Leveraging on Singapore’s Next-Generation broadband network, these new arrangements will facilitate working from home or satellite offices.

Minister of State for National Development and Manpower Tan Chuan-Jin said that while these new arrangements are not tailored solely for professionals, managers and executives, this group will benefit if the pilot is a success. He also elaborated on a range of initiatives the Government provides, including funding assistance schemes such as the “Work-Life Works!”Fund and the “Fun and Flexi-Works” scheme. Under these schemes, employers can receive co-funding when they implement flexible work arrangements.

More than 840 companies and employees have benefitted from these two schemes thus far, and more are encouraged to explore flexible work arrangements.

Read the Channel NewsAsia article ‘Govt to focus on promoting flexible work arrangements’ to find out more.

Do you think flexible work arrangements will improve productivity, while maintaining work-life balance? Share your thoughts with us!

1087 views | 36 comments & replies |

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Guest

11 Jul 2012, 2.36PM

All these measures will be in vain if there is no change in the fundamental mindset of Singaporean bosses. The majority of them still measure productivity in terms of "face-time", expect their workers to leave the office later than them, and have no qualms about contacting their employees who are out of the office.

Guest

11 Jul 2012, 3.23PM

I agree. We are basically a society lacking in trust. If only we trust one another more, we definitely can do more. But trust and sense of responsibility must work hand in hand. Once I holidayed in New Zealand and stayed in a motel where no one attended to us at all. Instructions regarding the stay and payments were clearly displayed at the counter. No one was there, except a cleaner who came by to do her job in the day. This is trust. But as customers, we must do our part in ensuring payment and upkeep of the place for the period of stay. When I was reading about the Finnish education system earlier this year, I came across an article about their teachers. I was pleasantly surprised to read that they don't believe in supervision of their teachers because they trust them to do their job. So far their teachers have been respected for that too. I am sure we can learn from others who have benefitted from a system of trust.

Fat MaMa

Guest

11 Jul 2012, 2.18PM

What flexi works .. NTUC is lobbying that free lancers be protected under Employment Act and CPF Act ... how to be flexi with all these happening?

Guest

11 Jul 2012, 2.54PM

As if costs are not high enough and as if the coming labour tightening measures are not going to increase costs even more, the Government chooses this time to promote a flexi work culture which will inevitably increase costs even more.

Singapore is filled with employers (in private AND public sector) who want to squeeze staff for all they are worth and demand maximum face time. Given the propensity for many employers to even fire staff who are pregnant in a hyper competitive economy, I think this is just a pie in the sky wishful thinking. All great sounding but with little prospect of success. So many competing demands that need to be met all at the same time.

Guest

11 Jul 2012, 3.05PM

I do not see cost increasing with flexi work .. flexi works will entice those who are not working now and at the same time do not want to be tied up with fixed time .. to come back to the workforce and work whatever hours they can offer .. in fact, these felxi worker will assist the "squeeze" with the tightening of foregin labour .. so wher the increase in cost?

Guest

11 Jul 2012, 3.26PM

We have people on flexi work arrangements in our organisation and these people are not readily available like full time staff.

You don't have certainly on when they are available and for what kind of assignment. And because of that, you need to have a few of them and manage them simultaneously so they can plug whatever gaps there are on a timely basis. And not forgetting you may have 4 flexi staff in place of 2 full time staff, which means you now have to administer HR matters for 4 people and not 2. You also have to spend time and resources to manage training and development for these 4 people, spend resources to find how they are doing, motivate them, give them TLC so they won't quit, etc.

These don't sound like extra costs? Managing 4 people instead of 2 does take a fair bit of face time and TLC in a tight labour market. Modern day staff cannot be thrown assignments and instructions and kicked around.

Guest

11 Jul 2012, 3.39PM

This is a matter of how you resource your company .. select staff who are on flexi work to be as independant and sel initiated .. not too much TLC needed .. as for HR management .. use technology to track and monitor by doing self serrvice .. many HR transactions can be done in this way .. if you are local SME .. SPRING offers a lot of grants on this ...

Guest

11 Jul 2012, 4.01PM

We are not so small. We can afford investment in technology and processes. And Government schemes certainly help. This is often the line put forward by the Government. But processes and technology are only part of the story. Those who believe employees can be engaged and managed with processes and technology alone are not likely to have had first hand experience managing all aspects of staff welfare and development. Staff need some form of regular human contact to keep them engaged and performing at an optimal level. And this is true in any organisation you go to. The best of HR technology and processes are never going to replace a good HR Manager/Director.

Finding independent staff who do not need TLC is a challenge in itself. You just have to attend HR conferences and mingle with HR practitioners and you will hear (first hand) what a challenge this can be in Singapore even for the bluest chips out there. And this is especially the case with Gen Y. Let them work flexi hours and you will see patchy performance. They can clock in fantastic output one day and close to zero the next. One day they are so motivated and the following day they are on facebook all day.

Not many Singaporeans have the judgement to do the right thing when given the benefit of flexi work and flexi work arrangements. This is not to say we should abandon the goal of flexi work. But rather, this is to say that it is going to be a bumpy and expensive ride.

Guest

11 Jul 2012, 4.24PM

Singaporeans are so dependant .. the govt is partly to be blamed .. the govt tend to spoon feed them .. and Singaporeans become complacency ... there is a lot mistrust and this lead to micro mangaing especially HR folks ... HR folks are afraid that if they give up this micro managing, their jobs will be GONE.

TLC should be done by the immediate supervisor and NOT HR ... who is best to give this TLC .. it is the supervisor ..

In a recent FORBES article .. Titled HR OUT OF TOUCH:

www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2012/06/20/new-study-hr-departments-completely-out-of-touch/

It showed that HR folks need a fundamental mind change and play a different role

Guest

11 Jul 2012, 4.40PM

Interesting FORBES article .. may HR folks should first go on flexi work and see whether they are "missed" by staff .. take the lead - HR!!!

Guest

11 Jul 2012, 6.27PM

People forget HR folks can only move as fast as corporate culture would allow. HR doesn't stand alone. It isn't just HR that needs to evolve. It is the corporate culture that needs to get a move on.

Guest

12 Jul 2012, 8.35AM

Why take a passive role .. HR? HR can influence corporate cultute .. rather than acting as a policeman.. be part of the change process ....

Guest

11 Jul 2012, 3.24PM

Suggest that govt agencies start the ball rolling .. opening their office hours from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m .. rather than 9 am to 5 pm ... by having extended officer hours .. flexi workers may have a better choice of time when they need to visit thes offices

Guest

11 Jul 2012, 4.13PM

This is not something the Government is likely to do. Anything progressive and expensive is for the private sector to take the lead. Forget about the Government taking the lead on this. They are mostly "do as I say, and don't do as I do".

Guest

11 Jul 2012, 8.40PM

Yes. . .I hope to see NEA, LTA and MoM take the lead by spiltting their work shifts into 8-5 and 10-7. At least nasty colleagues will not complain that you make personal calls during work!

Guest

13 Jul 2012, 10.27AM

I haerd that CPF will be shortening their hotline operating hours to end at 530 pm. instead of 6 pm .. is this flexi hours?

Guest

12 Jul 2012, 2.42PM

I believe one of the main purpose to promoting flexible work arrangements is to encourage work life balance. The government has many policies, and many contradict one another. For example, how can policymakers talk about work life balance, raising productivity and efficiency, and skill upgrading at the same time? Oh yes... I forgot. The policy makers, in this case are from three different ministries!!

I sight this example. A group of childcare teachers at my daughter's nursery.

1. Wake at 5:30am on weekdays to be able to reach the nursery by 6:45am and ready to receive children by 7am.
2. Work till 5pm or 5:30pm - and then, 3 times a week, attend evening classes from 7pm till 9:30pm. This is thanks to the various schemes MCYS has in place to ensure skill upgrading.
3. "Free evenings" are used to plan for lessons, and weekends are used to do more planning, including purchasing of material for the following week's class.

Where got work-life balance?? And I truly pity the mothers in this group of teachers. Although they have entitlement for childcare leave, MCs, annual leave, etc... these needs to be planned very carefully and a wrong move at a wrong time could result in them being penalised at work, and/or the centre penalised by MCYS. This situation, is thanks to MOF's "Increase productivity and efficiency" policies; and centres often run very tight ships. It doesn't help that MCYS springs so many mandate and certification from them either.

Guest

12 Jul 2012, 3.53PM

For as long as everybody want to have it all, there will be no work life balance and there will be ever decreasing fertility. It is as simple as that.

Work life balance requires a lot of give and take. And more give in most cases. And this is just not in character for most Singaporeans.

Guest

15 Jul 2012, 2.42PM

To ,
Minister of State for National Development and Manpower Tan Chuan-Jin

Dear Sir ,

I am a highly qualified media professional who is out of work for close to 1 year - reason- looking after my 7 months old son. I am a first generation Singaporean and do not have rugany family member in Spor to look after my child. I do not want my son to be raised by maids or half hearted play center employees.
I am sure there are MANY women out there who are facing the same problems and are faced with the dilemma of whether to work full time and not care about the child or to be stay at home mom and help bring up a better and more well rounded Singaporean child...

Singapore is a very small economy and it should NOT allow talented mothers to fall off the grid !!!

IF MOTHERS KEEP FALLING OFF THE GRID THEN SINGAPOREAN WOMEN , RIGHTLY SO, WILL NOT WANT TO HAVE KIDS !! WE DO NOT WANT GIFT PACKETS BUT WE WANT THE CORPORATE SECTORS AND THE GOVERNMENT SECTORS TO INTRODUCE FLEXIBLE HOURS / PART TIME WORK !

THIS IS THE WAY FORWARD AND MAY I ADD ...PLEASE DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME ON PILOT TESTS ETC. MAKE IT MANDATORY TO HAVE A CERTAIN QUOTA TO BE FILLED IN BY MOTHERS ... ITS A METTER OF SERIOUS CONCERN AND NEEDS IMMEDIATE AND SERIOUS ACTION...

Guest

15 Jul 2012, 5.14PM

Do you have any idea on how your work can be structured in such a way that you can work flex ... or are you just sitting around for the past one year waiting for someone to figure out how to use you on flex .. if the latter is waht you are waiting .. good luck to you ... TAKE the initiative to suggest how you acn work flex at an appropriate salary level and i am sure it will work .. it work for me when I told my boss how I can work flex ...

Guest

11 Jul 2012, 2.30PM

Any further breakdown by company staff size and whther local or foreign companies that have implemented flexiworks .. how many local SMEs?

Guest

11 Jul 2012, 2.43PM

Attend this eveny by CALIBERLINK and meet employers offering flexi work .. on Sat.. 21 July 2012:

www.caliberlink.com.sg/content/cetblog/web/events/OnlinePersonalBranding0112.html

Guest

11 Jul 2012, 5.25PM

So far the discussions on flexible work arrangements seems to be focus on the old working at home versus at the office debate, but what exactly is the aim of the flexible work arrangements?

Personally feel that the discussion should not be on working at home or the office debate only, but also giving the workers the opportunity to start work at different times depending on their own personal work schedules.

A combination of the two, working at home or at the office, and the ability for workers to control the own start time would be best. However as others have pointed out, some level of trust is required. Employees must have a level of self discipline, to show up at work when required. Employers must be able to draw the line between working hours and employee's personal hours.

Guest

12 Jul 2012, 8.38AM

Attend this event by CALIBERLINK and meet employers offering flexi work .. on Sat.. 21 July 2012: .. not necessarily working from home or office BUT at any time you choose

www.caliberlink.com.sg/content/cetblog/web/events/OnlinePersonalBranding0112.html

Guest

12 Jul 2012, 11.27AM

Your post captures the essence of what is required to make flexi hours work. Everyone has a part to play. And, as usual, most parties hope to avoid doing their bit and expect the others to do theirs. This includes the whole spectrum of employers in the public and private sector and employees.

Employers who want quality staff and output must accept that squeezing people dry is unacceptable. Employees have to earn trust and confidence by doing the right thing and exercising discretion when they have the benefit of flexi work arrangements. There are those who call for parties to trust each other. But I would say trust and confidence is almost always earned, not bestowed.

The long and short of it is that all parties have to do their part. Those who don't, those who don't put their money where their mouth is, have no credibility and authority to comment and should remain silent.

Guest

12 Jul 2012, 12.02PM

I agree that TRUST is earned .. BUT .. one party has to start first .. in my view .. it must be the employer .. if the employer begins with MISTRUST .. then .. you will NEVER earn the TRUST of employees .. I still time clocks installed in many officers to "track" staff attendance .. is this necessary if both employer and employee TRUST each other .. if it is for the sake of calculating overtime .. can't this be done by the employee self declaring the OT done? In smaller SME where such time clock investment is not cost effective .. such is the norm .. why, the larger you grow, the more MISTRUST occurs?

Guest

12 Jul 2012, 3.37PM

The above reply exemplifies the attitude prevalent in Singapore. You look at me, I look at you, you say why should you make the first move, I say why should I make the first move... After years, nobody moves.

Everyone should move together. And get into a finger pointing and calculative exercise many Singaporeans are fond of.

Guest

12 Jul 2012, 5.15PM

yes, I very much agree with you. it has to be a joint effort both from the employers and employees. unless both work together it is completely useless. if everyone looks to the other to see what the other is doing, we are not going to get any where with this.

Guest

12 Jul 2012, 5.40PM

Joint efforts is an ideal .. and ideals is NOT pragmatic .. someone has to move first .. look at Singapore/Malaysia political relationship .. if no one moved first .. nothing will happen .. be realistic .. make the first move so that the other is persuaded to respond ...

Guest

12 Jul 2012, 6.09PM

the first move is already made. this is effort to promote flexible work arrangement. this is why we are talking about it.

it is now up to companies to take up the challenge, talk to their staff and see how it can be carried out that best suit their nature of work. isn't this joint effort when management start talking to staff?

Guest

13 Jul 2012, 8.59AM

How about staff taking the first move and talk to the employer .. maybe the employer do not know that their staff wants flexi work .. go to your employer with some ideas on how you want the flexi work be carried out

Guest

18 Jul 2012, 3.50PM

If you are looking for flexi work .. attend this event this Saturday, 21 July 2012 .. 9 am to 1 pm:

(Master)

Senior Psychologist

20 Jul 2012, 1.00PM

With disgruntled mixed feelings, the government is bogged down with much unhappiness among its citizens today.

It called for employers or organizations to initiate flexi-work schemes, based on a formula that would target unemployed citizens, retirees, semi-retirees and those who may be chronically disabled. But the global economic downturn, resulting in scarcity of jobs (with preference given to some foreigners), resulted in the proportion of unemployed citizens' wanting to get back to the workforce on their terms because they have the rights to bargain for their worth. Commercial sensitivity due to open foreign labor policy means that many companies will reveal only what they want to government to know and how many citizens they are willing to be contracted to be on a flexi-work plans. But again, how much are these citizens going to be paid will depend very much on the type of work they do and are they willing to compromise even with NTUC guidelines? It is not an easy answer as long as the foreign policy embraces more immigrants and it is up to each HRD manager to decide.

Guest

22 Jul 2012, 2.47PM

We vare now living ain a global village .. especially for PMEs .. jobs which PMEs can do .. can be done anywhere in the world especially with technology .. if our salaries for PMEs are not comeptitvely globally, such jobs will not come to Singapore, regardles of whether we have aliberal fFT policy .. so , wake PMEs .. be realistic with your salary expectations .. compete with FTs along the same salary expectatioins .. do not dream that just because you are a local .. you should pay more!

Guest

27 Jul 2012, 1.29AM

Many companies are still stuck in the low cost low wage business model. A model that requires extensive and sustained human input over long periods. And these companies are likely to hang on as long as they can even as cost pressures rise and resources become scarce. And it is such businesses that require extensive face time and are resistant to flexi work.

This transition will take time for sure.

Guest

11 Aug 2012, 10.01AM

Start with Government agencies and GLCs.

As large employers and juggernauts in local industry, the public sector and GLCs will squash the private sector if they continue in their old ways and squeeze more out of their staff for less money.

If the Government and GLCs don't do it, don't bother. All this will just be more cheap talk as it has been for so many years.