The past year of working from home may have meant more flexibility for employees, but it did not always translate into better work-life balance, something a new private-public alliance wants to change.

Spearheaded by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and its tripartite partners, and comprising employees, employers as well as other stakeholders, the alliance wants to have an army of Work-Life Ambassadors and Communities of Practice, who will fan out to shift attitudes among people and in sectors that have typically found it hard to implement flexible work arrangements.

It has already recruited more than 100 members, and plans to launch its initiatives by the first quarter of the year.

"In this opportune window of transformation, we need to find ways to entrench and enhance good work-life practices in the new normal and beyond," said MOM, the National Trades Union Congress and Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF).

The Alliance for Action on Work-Life Harmony is one of four such partnerships that have emerged from the Singapore Together Emerging Stronger Conversations, held from June to December last year. The conversation series canvassed Singaporeans on their experiences during the pandemic, and also their aspirations for Singapore.

The ongoing mass public engagement exercise also provided the impetus for alliances on encouraging corporate social responsibility, promoting digital skills and literacy, and providing digital devices to those with fewer means.

Providing an update on the conversation series yesterday, Minister for National Development Desmond Lee, who guided the exercise along with Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Indranee Rajah, said more such partnerships would be formed to address the issues thrown up.

So far, some 16,900 people here across all ages and races have participated in the conversations.

They include 4,400 people who took part in 88 dialogues, mostly held online, as well as 12,500 people who responded to surveys conducted as part of the exercise.

The Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, which released a report on the exercise, said 15 key themes emerged. Of these, participants were most interested in the topics about social support for vulnerable segments of society, Singapore's national identity and shared values, as well as the impact of Covid-19 on jobs and the economy.

Ms Indranee said the pandemic put the spotlight on issues such as domestic violence, mental well-being and digital inclusiveness. She said: "Our conversations show that there is increasing awareness of these and other social issues, and that Singaporeans place high importance on being an empathetic and caring society."

Both ministers called on Singaporeans to work with the Government in this regard. Mr Lee said: "Singaporeans can look forward to the opening up of policy spaces so we can work with Singaporeans to drive positive changes in Singapore."

In a survey conducted as part of the exercise, four in five respondents said they were open to partnering the Government in working towards a better Singapore. But there was less certainty among respondents that the Government would respond in kind, with only two in five expressing confidence that the Government would consider their views seriously.

Some, like Mr Ang Kian Peng, 43, have gone ahead anyway to join the Alliance for Action on Corporate Purpose.

The director of Samsui Supplies, a social enterprise that brings together prison inmates and persons with disabilities to provide healthy food to nursing homes, said: "Hopefully we can get more like-minded people to come together to do good. As long as we are willing to take a first step to come together to discuss, this itself is an achievement."

In a Facebook post on the conversations yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said the conversations had built on the Singapore Together Movement which he launched in 2019 to encourage people to partner the Government.

"True to the spirit of Singapore Together, these conversations are leading to action... Let us work in closer partnership, so that we can emerge stronger from this crisis of a generation," he said, adding that he would speak more about the topic in the upcoming Budget next Tuesday.