FROM next month, a group of 40 employees at the headquarters of Cherie Hearts childcare chain will go on a four-day work week.

It is a six-week pilot project that the centre's co-founder Gurchran Singh is introducing, with an eye on extending it for good across the company, which operates 39 childcare centres.

Mr Singh, 34, was given an inaugural award on Friday night for championing work-life harmony at the workplace.

He told The Straits Time: 'Four in five of the staff are women, and most of them are married or getting married. I want them to have some additional time with their families.'

So his staff will get a day off every alternate Friday.

Mr Singh is among a growing group of employers who realise that pay alone will not retain workers.

More family and personal time are important too.

Acting Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong, speaking at the awards ceremony in Suntec convention centre, cited surveys showing that workers put a premium on being able to balance their work and personal or family life.

Cherie Hearts' 350 employees enjoy free childcare services and when they are sent abroad for work, the company will subsidise the travel expenses of family members.

Mr Singh credits these perks for its low staff turnover rate of 1.3 per cent against the industry's 6 to 7 per cent.

His latest brainchild will give his staff a day off every alternate Friday.

He was one of two individuals who received the Work Life Leadership Award.

The other was Ms Lim Soo Hoon, permanent secretary of the Public Service Division. She initiated a Blue Sky policy that lets her colleagues knock off work by 6pm on Fridays.

A total of 60 companies also received awards for putting in place work-life measures.