The IPS Online Forum on Corporate Policies and Culture was held on 31 August 2021 and is the last of three online forums with changemakers in Singapore actively engaged in community causes that effect positive social change in the country. This is part of the larger “Reimagining Singapore 2030” project by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), which aims to discuss how Singapore can achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for the nation in 2030 and beyond.
Moderated by Dr Gillian Koh, Deputy Director of Research and Senior Research Fellow at IPS, this final forum featured four panellists who focused on changemaking that promotes inclusive employment, alternative models of employment and greater gender representation on corporate boards in Singapore.
Ms Carrie Tan, founder and strategic advisor of Daughters Of Tomorrow (DOT) and Member of Parliament for Nee Soon GRC discussed the importance of thinking more seriously about flexible work and leave arrangements centred around employees and their needs.
“People just need a break sometimes, because of care responsibilities and how overwhelming they can be, and potential issues with mental health,” she said. She shared that this particularly applies to women: As Singapore’s population ages, many women are being increasingly sandwiched, not only between caring for both parents and children, but also between care responsibilities and career pursuits. Ms Tan also cited the nationwide Singapore Mental Health Study in 2016 which found that one in seven Singaporeans would experience a mental health issue in their lifetime.
She gave the specific example of low-wage, underprivileged women, a group that DOT supports. In 2018 to 2019, DOT set about connecting them with jobs in the food and beverage (F&B), retail, hospitality and services sectors. As these sectors operated traditionally on unstable, rotating shift work, DOT drew on research conducted with international clothing label Gap and managed to persuade 40 to 70 employer partners — the latest being Sephora, Vanguard Healthcare and several local F&B chains — to increase the consistency of designated shift days per week (core scheduling) and reduce variations in shift start and end times (stable shift structure), allowing these women to both hold their jobs and attend to care needs at home.
Ms Tan emphasised that if implemented, flexible work and leave arrangements should be extended to the entire organisation, as this signals an egalitarian work culture where if any employee needs time off, others would be prepared to cover their work. This would also avoid certain employees feeling unfairly treated, such as if an unmarried employee were expected to cover for married couples with children who took childcare leave.
For Ms Junie Foo, president of the Singapore Council of Women’s Organisations (SCWO), she sees greater female representation in senior management as beneficial to Singapore’s future. She cited the 2021 Grant Thornton International Business Report, which revealed that 33 per cent of women held senior management positions in Singapore. This did not translate proportionately to female board representation, which stood at 18 per cent, based on data from the Council for Board Diversity.
In 2011, the latter number was lower at 6.4 per cent, which led her to establish BoardAgender in the same year, an SCWO initiative which aims to promote greater awareness of the benefits of gender-balanced business and facilitate the entry of more women into senior leadership roles and the boardroom. Ms Foo felt that such goals would allow Singapore’s to retain as much of its talent in the workplace as possible.
“With more women in decision-making, it really changes the work landscape, such as inclusive human resource (HR) policies. Women tend to look at things differently, and can enrich the experience on the board,” she said.
Echoing Ms Tan’s earlier point about work and leave arrangements, Ms Foo expressed her hope that companies would also be more gender-balanced in their HR policies, recognising the unique business potential that women possess, and building career pathways that would allow women to have children, be with family and yet succeed at their careers.
On the disability front, Ms Chia Yong Yong, board advisory panel member and former president of SPD, and board member of SG Enable, related the recent news of 88 companies in Singapore receiving the inaugural Enabling Mark award, a national-level accreditation framework for workplaces with disability-inclusive practices. She shared how this was an important signal of more inclusive work conditions for persons with disabilities.
Singapore has come a long way in the last 30 or 40 years with regards to disability inclusion, Ms Chia said, having achieved greater public visibility and acceptance of persons with disabilities as well as increased physical and transport accessibility, and access to education and employment opportunities.
“The road ahead is exciting for us because the way is being paved,” said Ms Chia, citing Singapore’s ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2013 and the quinquennial Enabling Masterplans, Singapore’s national disability sector roadmap.
Responding to multiple questions regarding what SG Enable and other disability organisations are doing to promote the hiring of persons with disabilities, Ms Chia felt that employers could do more to take an active interest in this group, and take advantage of the many schemes to support the inclusion of persons with disabilities at work. One key example is the Open Door Programme, a collaboration between SG Enable and SPD, the Autism Resource Centre and the Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore, where employers are provided with holistic support and guidance in hiring, training and integrating persons with disabilities.
When disability agencies reach out to train disabled employees and support employers to include them, they also work hard to create a culture of acceptance and understanding in the workplace. In turn, Ms Chia hoped that employers would come to value disability inherently, and for its business sense, such as being an engine for technological or work process innovations. Disability should be perceived as adding value to the workplace, rather than to be accommodated, she said.
Drawing from his experiences in the music and F&B space, Mr Sandy Monteiro, founder of sandwich chain Rebel Gurl, shared how he challenged traditional, preconceived notions of business in the F&B sector.
At Rebel Gurl, investors are treated as co-owners of the brand, as opposed to separate franchise owners unconcerned with the brand’s overall success. Rather than choosing suppliers based on lowest cost price, it focuses instead on building mutually beneficial relationships with suppliers, and partnering them into Rebel’s business approach.
For its young employees, Rebel Gurl has also made youth entrepreneurship a part of its business model, where driven and motivated employees are invited to be part of the ownership of the brand as franchise owners, rather than as typical hourly wage earners. Some can also become business trainers, he said, sharing that as the business is due to expand in Indonesia, staff will be given the opportunity to travel to become trainers to newly hired staff.
“We create a career path for those who have the ability and want to make it happen,” he said, stressing the importance of valuing hunger and drive in employees, and ensuring that they are integrated into the brand. He shared that it is crucial for employees to be well-mentored in work processes and how they fit into the business, and be given opportunities to contribute to its broader success beyond their employee roles and become successful themselves, in turn.
All panellists agreed that an intentional paradigm shift in corporate culture was required, and across all business units. Workplaces need to transition towards employee-centred HR practices — hiring practices that extend beyond credentialism and tokenism to valuing and developing an individual’s talents and worth.
Responding to the audience’s questions on how these goals could be realised, panellists agreed that good leaders are key in fostering a culture of acceptance, as they decide the values and culture upon which a company is built and operates. Leaders should not focus on employees as merely in service of output production, but to fully develop their talents and passions, and extending opportunities while planning around needs and limitations be it disability, mental illness or care needs.
Taking one more step back, Ms Tan reflected on the need for a broader shift where human capital is radically redefined.
“At some point in time, machines will be able to take over hard skills. We need to think about harnessing individuals simply by who they are: their personality, the way they approach life and how they work with others … nurturing them based on different intelligences and traits. What it means to be human — and how some of those aspects can contribute to the workplace — is something the corporate sector needs to think about,” she said.
The forum also saw questions seeking panellists’ views on religious or partisan biases in hiring, and how ex-offenders could be included at the workplace. Ms Tan made the point that Singapore would not condone hiring discrimination along religious or partisan lines. To the latter, she called for empathy and patience towards ex-offenders, many of whom have experienced abuse and rejection, and who need the community to journey with and build trust alongside.
During the forum, Ms Chia related her own experience as a new lawyer, and her initial difficulties finding pupillage or a job. She eventually found her first job, and while it did not pay to her expectations, it gave her the break she needed to prove her worth and become a full-fledged lawyer. Accordingly, she reiterated her call for employers to give persons with disabilities a fighting chance at employment.
“You got to give people a chance. Start with internships, move onto employment. If they are hungry enough, and if they really want to, they will do very well and you will not regret it. It will make economic sense for you, and it would give them a sense of contribution.”
Mr Monteiro highlighted the importance of soft skills, soft values and soft power, which he felt is essential in a developed society and its workforce, and at all levels. In agreement, Ms Tan added that she wanted to put a different spin on the “hard skills” and “soft skills” needed in the workplaces of the future.
“We need to be ‘strong’ in our belief of a future we want to create and pursue relentlessly, but in the process, when working with others, our partners, we need to be ‘soft’ — flexible and adaptable in working with others,” she said. “Even if one does not know about ‘soft skills’, all you need to do is replace judgement with curiosity — and you will discover things, and the solutions to them, quite naturally.”
Click here to watch the video and read the full report of the forum.
