SINGAPORE : Setting an example for other employers, the Ministry
of Manpower (MOM) has implemented new schemes to promote a better
work-life balance for its staff.
Employees with MOM can now opt to work just four days a week and
take one hour off once a week to exercise.
The Ministry is the only one, for now, to offer these schemes
called the compressed work week and flexi-exercise hour.
Said the director of its People Matters Department, Ms Amy Tan:
"Like many other organisations, you want to promote a good HR
practice, you want to make the organisation the best employer in
town.
"Likewise, MOM - the de facto HR director for the nation - will
also show that having good HR practice will help to attract and
retain the talent that we have. We truly believe that people are
the key to our success, and if we can retain and engage them, it'll
bring MOM to greater heights," she added.
Hopefully, she added, MOM's moves would encourage other employers
to promote worklife balance in their organisations.
Under the new compressed work week scheme, employees will still
work 42 hours per week, like any other civil servant.
Ms Tan explained: "You will work four days as long as you clock 42
hours for that week. So you can choose, maybe you rest on Friday or
you rest on Monday or any particular day of the week. Four days
will be ideal, three days is just impossible."
The flexi-exercise hour will help promote a healthy
lifestyle.
"We encourage people to make use of the nearest sports facilities,"
she said.
Other family-friendly workplace practices at MOM include allowing
staff to go part-time or work from home, and having two persons
share one job.
But Ms Tan emphasised that in implementing these new HR schemes,
department managers must be supportive before they can be
effective.
Bearing in mind that communicating to the staff how these schemes
work is also very important, MOM also conducts dialogue sessions to
educate and obtain feedback from its employees. - NewsRadio
93.8