Forum: Working longer should mean more ways to contribute
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Singapore’s plans to raise retirement and re-employment ages offer older workers more opportunities to remain active (S’pore to raise retirement age to 65, re-employment age to 70 in 2029; expand flexi work for seniors, Oct 26).
Beyond income, continued work can provide purpose, social connection and the satisfaction of being valued. But its benefits depend on having genuine choices about how to contribute.
An experienced employee’s value is not confined to the tasks they can still perform. Much of it lies in judgments made during years on the front line.
But the knowledge can be overlooked by companies that have their own recognition frameworks.
Employers could make this experience count via a voluntary experience-to-contribution pathway within existing re-employment discussions. Instead of simply assigning a lighter workload or a mentoring title, a supervisor could invite experienced employees to describe specific incidents in the course of their work.
Where employees wish, this could lead to new roles in coaching, quality checks or process improvement. It can give organisations a better way to learn from the people who have spent years on the job.
Tang Min Hui