Structured programmes for seniors, stay-at-home mothers planned to widen hiring pool

SINGAPORE – Students, seniors and stay-at-home mothers who want jobs would benefit from programmes designed to help them pick up additional skills.

The initiative, just one in a series of recommendations in a new report, would help address challenges in the local labour market, Senior Minister of State for Manpower Zaqy Mohamad noted on Oct 10.

“There remains a huge untapped pool of talent who would be willing to work if suitable opportunities are available,” he noted at the People Behind People Forum held at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre at Marina Bay Sands.

He added that around 25 per cent of the 1.12 million residents who are outside the workforce are retirees, while another 25 per cent are aged 15 to 24, and 8 per cent have caregiving responsibilities.

“To address the labour market crunch, employers must look beyond existing talent pools,” Mr Zaqy said, in a reference to widening the hiring pool to boost the take-up of hard-to-fill roles such as front-line retail jobs.

Developing programmes to attract talent was one of eight recommendations proposed in a report from the Alliance for Action (AfA) on Widening Access to Talent formed to increase talent competitiveness amid manpower constraints.

The recommendations were developed to tackle concerns arising from technological disruptions, like the rise of generative artificial intelligence and the changing expectations of a multi-generational workforce.

Mr Zaqy said the most critical area of the AfA is probably uplifting human resources (HR) capabilities, noting that more can be done to increase the access of small and medium-sized enterprises to HR advisory and consultancy services to help these firms “overcome barriers to adopting skills-first practices”.

Meanwhile, smaller firms would benefit from a “talent co-development” model where employees could take up temporary roles in other firms through joint partnerships. This would also give employers access to a wider pool of skilled candidates within their industry.

HR professionals are also encouraged to obtain their Institute for Human Resource Professionals (IHRP) certification to help employers get the support they need.

The AfA report also recommends developing job-specific standardised assessment tests and playbooks to promote job mobility within a company.

The Job Redesign playbook launched by IHRP on Oct 10 aims to help address the country’s ageing, educated workforce.

It features a six-step job redesign framework for HR roles, ranging from conducting an initial assessment to reviewing job redesign opportunities and diagnosing aspects of the job that should be redesigned.

Singapore Pools has used the framework to redesign its HR operations executive roles.

“The framework guides the HR teams to build a solid case of job redesign. We can’t just choose a job and redesign (it),” said Ms Jenny Siew, lead of people and culture at Singapore Pools.

She added that HR teams have to assess jobs and switch some of the manual and repetitive tasks to higher-value responsibilities. For instance, extracting and preparing reports took up about 20 per cent of the company’s HR team’s week, while data entry work swallowed another 13 per cent. The tasks are now carried out with digital tools that have improved productivity.

Ms Siew said the framework taught her the importance of prioritising tasks and solutions that need to be implemented.

IHRP chief executive Aslam Sardar noted: “By reviewing aspects of jobs, organisations can identify roles that drive greater value creation and fit with business strategies that ultimately contribute to growth.”

The initiatives outlined in the AfA report will be piloted first in three sectors: manufacturing, retail, and information and communications technology.

Dr Bicky Bhangu, the co-lead of the AfA report, noted: “With the support of Singapore National Employers Federation and the Trade Associations and Chambers in driving these efforts, businesses will be better positioned... to overcome manpower challenges and remain competitive in the long run.”