New features rolled out on MyCareersFuture to strengthen fair, inclusive hiring practices

1. Workforce Singapore (WSG) and the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) have rolled out three new features on the national job portal MyCareersFuture to strengthen progressive hiring practices amongst employers.
2. Developed by WSG in partnership with the Government Technology Agency (GovTech), MyCareersFuture is constantly enhanced based on user feedback and needs since it was launched in April 2018. About 200,000 individuals and 27,000 employers have been actively using the portal for their job search and hiring needs in the past year.
3. Aligned with Singapore’s Smart Nation vision to co-create and deliver citizen-centric Government digital services, MyCareersFuture taps on the latest Machine Learning technology and User Experience Design to make job searches and postings convenient, easy and a more pleasant experience for local jobseekers and employers and improve access to job opportunities available.
4. One key thrust of MyCareersFuture is to provide as many jobseekers as possible a fair chance at the roles advertised. To achieve this, WSG and TAFEP have developed three new purpose-built features. With these features added to the MyCareersFuture portal, WSG and TAFEP aim to set a new standard for other job portals to follow.
   1. Prompting employers to adhere to the TGFEP when placing job advertisements
      The “Employer Prompt” feature reminds employers to adhere to the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices (TGFEP) when crafting job postings and before they are published on MyCareersFuture.
   2. Better guidance for employers in crafting neutral job ads to attract and find the most suitable candidate
      We now make use of social listening technology to crawl and review all job postings published on MyCareersFuture and flag out to employers any potentially discriminatory terms or mentions. By guiding employers on how they can improve their job postings, they would be better able to attract and find the most suitable candidates for the role which they are hiring. Employers will be expected to amend any discriminatory job advertisements, and TAFEP will investigate any breaches of the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices (TGFEP).
   3. Making it easier for public to report possible discrimination
      The “Report Discriminatory Job Ads” feature allows jobseekers to conveniently report any discriminatory job posting they come across on MyCareersFuture. TAFEP will review the reports and investigate any breaches of the TGFEP. This will help to foster a culture of fair hiring for all employers.
5. All employers are expected to adhere to the TGFEP when placing job advertisements and ensure they do not use phrases that indicate a preference for certain groups of employees. Since January 2020, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has suspended the work pass privileges for 90 employers under the Fair Consideration Framework, of which 45 are due to posting of discriminatory job advertisements.
6. In one case, a private school had posted a discriminatory job advertisement on MyCareersFuture in July 2020, stating its preference for candidates under the age of 30 for the position of Legal Manager. MOM’s investigations revealed that the employer included an age limit for the position which involved more than 60 business trips a year. The employer perceived that older employees might not be able to cope with the frequent business travel and wanted to hire younger candidates instead. For breaching the TGFEP, MOM barred the employer from hiring foreign employees, and from renewing the work passes of their existing foreign employees for a period of 12 months.
7. Dr Joyce Tan, Director for Digital Experience for Career Services, WSG, said, “We are happy to partner TAFEP to roll out these features on the MyCareersFuture portal so that we can ensure greater transparency in fair employment practices. As the labour landscape continues to evolve especially amid COVID19, it is timely that we look into strengthening how we detect unfair employment practices. To build an inclusive hiring culture is crucial in this climate and we are glad to be able to play our part to empower the public to be involved through the use of technology."
8. Ms Faith Li, General Manager, TAFEP, said, “TAFEP is fully supportive of the new features on MyCareersFuture to help employers abide by the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices. Technology can be a key enabler for employers to hire fairly, which in turn increases their talent pool and helps them hire suitable candidates for the job. We look forward to working with more job portals so that more employers and jobseekers can benefit from fair and progressive employment practices.”