Ms Jacqueline Wong has always enjoyed interacting with people. Driven by her interest in seeing how engaging people can help an organisation achieve its goals, she decided to specialise in human resources (HR) at university.

“I’ve always believed that people are the core of any organisation and there’s a lot that can be done to keep them engaged throughout their careers,” she says.

Today, she serves as a Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Civilian Generalist, also known as Home Affairs Senior Executive. She specialises in HR at MHA.

“Many of our officers have been with the public service for many years, and are still very passionate about serving the nation,” she says, recalling her past experiences in organising promotion and long service award ceremonies for Home Team officers.

“The dedication of frontline uniformed officers has always resonated with me. So, while I may not be at the frontlines, I thought I could contribute in my own way as a civilian officer, by ensuring that officers are given the right opportunities and environment to grow and flourish, and able to carry out their duties to the best of their abilities.”

As an MHA Civilian Generalist, Ms Wong has the opportunity to be rotated across the ministry headquarters and 10 Home Team agencies, as well as to take up different roles in 12 domain areas including communications and community engagement, corporate administration, finance, human resource, and international relations. This rotation, which takes place every three to five years on average, enables her and other Civilian Generalists to develop cross-cutting knowledge and skills.

Those who have a deep interest in a particular domain of work like Ms Wong can also choose to remain in their field when they are rotated.

Ms Wong began her career at MHA in HR management, focusing on operational HR such as recruitment, performance management, and career development matters. Currently, she is a senior manager in the HR policy and compensation section, which drives the review of MHA HR policies and remuneration packages to ensure that they remain competitive and sustainable.

One example is the review of the fitness framework of uniformed officers to ensure that they remain physically fit and can carry out their roles safely and effectively till retirement. As part of the review, she engages uniformed officers to understand their challenges and concerns, which in turn help guide policy formulation. 

“When we hear directly from these officers, we get a real sense of what happens on the ground and what really matters to the officers. This ensures that the policies support the fundamental needs of our officers, so that they can carry out their duties without worries,” she explains.

The work she does directly impacts the talent attraction and retention of staff at MHA. With regular reviews of HR policies, the organisation is in a better position to attract individuals looking for a meaningful and dynamic career keeping Singapore safe and secure.

Multiple opportunities for growth

Since joining MHA, Ms Wong has had a variety of opportunities to deepen her knowledge and skill sets as an HR professional.

As an officer on the MHA HR Talent Programme, she went for a study trip to London together with the Public Service Division, where she visited organisations and thought leaders to learn about their HR practices and efforts to uplift the HR community, including areas such as data analytics. She also joined an HR conference where she learnt about creating future-oriented people strategies and employee engagement practices.

In 2022, she was the chairperson for the MHA HR division staff well-being committee. She led a team of 12 members from the division to organise staff welfare activities for more than 300 of their fellow MHA HR officers, building friendships and rapport within a division that had little interaction since the pandemic-enforced work arrangements.

Currently, Ms Wong is on the Home Team Leaders-in-Development Programme, a Home Team-wide leadership programme for young officers that offers exposure to key security-related issues outside of their main job scopes.

Under this programme, Ms Wong had the chance to go on learning journeys to other Home Team agencies to learn about their technology initiatives, as well as to private organisations within the tech industry to gain insights on potential collaboration opportunities.

Moving forward, Ms Wong hopes to explore other HR sub-domains such as leadership development or workforce planning. While the HR function is what she intends to focus on in the long run, she is also open to rotation opportunities to other domain areas like communications, to give herself exposure to different areas of MHA’s work. 

Ultimately, she hopes to deepen her functional expertise at MHA and broaden her experience to gain new insights and stay agile in the organisation.

To students considering the career of a Civilian Generalist within MHA, her advice is to keep an open mind.

“Don’t be afraid to explore areas of work that are unrelated to your studies – there’s no one fixed path you have to take. With the civilian generalist track, there are many varied opportunities and you can chart your own unique career pathway – it all depends on your inclination and aptitude.”