Re-employment and age-friendly workplace practices will support senior workers

We refer to Emily Yap Yong An’s letter, “Living life with a goal is key to better health and well-being” (July 22).

Ms Emily Yap called for greater re-employment of senior workers to address Singapore’s manpower shortage and help them continue to contribute to society. 

Indeed, Singapore’s re-employment model has worked well for businesses and senior workers who wish to continue working. Currently, over 90% of eligible resident employees who wish to continue working have been offered re-employment at age 62. We expect this level of re-employment to continue, given the tight labour market. The re-employment age was also raised from 67 to 68 on 1 July 2022, which enables senior workers to work longer if they wish to.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) also incentivises companies to adopt a higher internal retirement and re-employment age above the minimum statutory requirements, through the Senior Worker Early Adopter Grant. As of May 2022, more than 5,200 companies have successfully applied for the grant with more than 44,000 senior workers in total expected to benefit. 

Ms Yap also suggested that senior workers could work part-time instead of full-time, and that training should be provided. The MOM and our tripartite partners have been encouraging employers to conduct Structured Career Planning (SCP) with their mature and senior workers to better understand and plan for their career and training needs. Employers can then offer their staff a supportive workplace environment, such as more part-time re-employment opportunities, as well as implement age-friendly workplace practices such as training, job redesign and workplace health programmes. Employers may refer to the SCP Guidebook (www.mom.gov.sg/employment-practices/re-employment) launched by SNEF in July 2022 to help employers adopt SCP. 

For funding to support employers that offer part-time re-employment opportunities and engage in job redesign, employers can also tap on the Part-time Re-employment Grant and Support for Job Redesign under the Productivity Solutions Grant respectively. Under the Senior Employment Credit, employers will also receive wage offsets for hiring Singaporean senior workers aged 55 and above, and earning up to $4,000/month.

We encourage employers who implement age-friendly workplace practices to adopt the Tripartite Standard on Age-Friendly Workplace Practices (www.tal.sg/tafep/employment-practices/age-management). This way, they can be recognised as a progressive employer of choice and be better positioned to attract and retain experienced, well-trained workers. 

Lee Chung Wei
Divisional Director
Workplace Policy and Strategy Division
Ministry of Manpower

Living life with a goal is key to better health and well-being - The Straits Times, 22 Jul 2022

As someone who volunteers with the elderly, I see mature workers who are gainfully employed enjoying a better quality of life (New guide to help employers in career planning for mature workers, July 13).

Purposeful longevity means living life with a goal, where one is able to pursue one's own interests and actively contribute at one's workplace and the community. This results in better health and well-being.

One can enjoy purposeful longevity through working and lifelong learning. Working enables better physical and psychological well-being and provides added financial security.

We all need to have a purpose in life.

I am a great admirer of our founding father, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, who said: "I think the most important single lesson I learnt in life was that if you isolate yourself, you're done for. The human being is a social animal - he needs stimuli, he needs to meet people, to catch up with the world... You must have an interest in life. If you're not interested in the world and the world is not interested in you, the biggest punishment a man can receive is total isolation in a dungeon."

Indeed, an important part of ageing well is maintaining social support and engagement in activities.

As Singapore faces a manpower shortage, it would be good to re-employ seniors. It would help the mature worker earn an income and continue to contribute to society. The wisdom of mature workers makes them a valuable asset to a company.

In addition, we are now facing a time of great inflation and our cost of living is rising. Some seniors may not have enough retirement savings. Having a chance to continue working would help relieve their financial worries.

Senior workers may need training to keep up with today's technology. Some may not be able to work long hours due to health issues. So it would be good to allow them to work part-time instead.

Emily Yap Yong An