Employees and bosses are being encouraged to confront biases in their workplaces, under a new initiative by the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (Tafep).

They were asked to make a personal commitment to create fair and inclusive workplaces at the Fair@Work Promise microsite, which was launched yesterday.

"All of us want to work in a workplace where we are not judged based on biases and stereotypes," said Tafep general manager Roslyn Ten. "To achieve this, we must first recognise and acknowledge that we all have biases, unconscious or not."

Management teams and staff from companies including Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), OCBC Bank and Starbucks Coffee Singapore also penned their own promises.

SPH chief executive Alan Chan said: "Seeing people for their abilities and skills is something we strongly believe in, and is perfectly aligned to our core values of excellence and teamwork."

More than 2,850 people made promises by the end of the first day.

Accountant Jeffrey Chen, 26, made his digital pledge at Tafep's two-day roadshow, held at Chevron House in Raffles Place to launch the new initiative which will run indefinitely.

He said: "Sometimes better-looking people get more opportunities. It's important to see ability in everyone regardless of appearances."

Joanna Seow