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Oral Answer by Ms Low Yen Ling, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Manpower, to Parliamentary Question on job redesign

Employment practices

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1792 OF 2019 FOR THE SITTING ON 3 SEPT 2019
QUESTION NO. 3047 FOR ORAL ANSWER

MP: Ms Jessica Tan Soon Neo

To ask the Minister for Manpower (a) what programmes are in place to support companies in making work and the work environment age-friendly to enable companies to leverage on the competencies of their older employees and for older workers to do their best work; (b) what is the progress of companies establishing and adopting more age-friendly work practices; and (c) what is the progress of companies retraining their older workers to enable them to take on new opportunities within the organisation.

Answer

  1. The Government encourages companies to redesign workplaces and processes to create easier, safer and smarter jobs for older workers. Since the WorkPro Job Redesign Grant started in 2013, over 1,800 companies employing about 20,000 older workers have benefitted from the Grant and redesigned their jobs. 
  2. Even without support from grants, many progressive companies have implemented age-friendly practices. In 2018, about 12,000 companies, employing about 92% of the 331,000 (305,000) local employees aged 50 & above, reported they have done so. These age-friendly measures include job redesign, flexible work arrangements, and well-being programmes, among others.
  3. The Government continues to support our seniors to upgrade their skills alongside changing needs of the industry. For example, the SkillsFuture Mid-Career Enhanced Subsidy provides higher funding support for eligible Singaporeans aged 40 and over. This could be up to 90% of course fees for SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) supported courses and at least 90% of programme costs for MOE-subsidised courses in our Institutes of Higher Learning.
  4. The rate of training in older workers aged between age 50 and 64 has been rising steadily in recent years, from 26% in 2015 to 40% in 2018.
  5. Nonetheless, there is scope to do more. Today, job redesign is mostly task-specific, and benefits only a few workers at a time. Hence, the Government supports the Tripartite Workgroup on Older Workers’ recommendation which encourages employers to move beyond this, that they should implement job redesign throughout their organisation and at the systems level. This move will extend the age ceiling of more jobs and workers.
  6. Older workers are more likely to look to employers to indicate the kind of training they should undertake. As employers are more aware of the changes in industry demand and technology, they are well-placed to advise older workers on the type of training they need to stay relevant for the future economy. Hence, the Government also supports the Workgroup’s recommendation to encourage employers to engage mature and older workers in structured career planning sessions.