Groundbreaking Ceremony of MOM Bendemeer Office
MOM's services to be consolidated under one roof to raise service excellence
- The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) held a groundbreaking ceremony today to kick off the construction of its new MOM Bendemeer Office. The ceremony was graced by Minister for Manpower Gan Kim Yong, together with Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Manpower Hawazi Daipi as well as senior officials from MOM and the Workplace Safety and Health Council.
Need for a new location
- MOM's services are currently situated at three locations1. The lease for MOM's Kim Seng office and Work Pass Services Centre at Tanjong Pagar Complex will expire and the sites will be returned to the Singapore Land Authority and PSA Coporation Limited respectively. These conditions prompted MOM to source for a suitable site and to capitalise on the opportunity to consolidate our frontline services.
- An estimated 1,100 MOM staff from these divisions will be relocating to the Bendemeer Office:
a) Customer Responsiveness Department
b) Foreign Manpower Management Division
c) Occupational Safety and Health Division
d) Labour Relations and Workplaces Division
e) Work Pass Services Centre
- In addition, the ministry will be joined by the Workplace Safety and Health Council, which will be moving out of the Ministry of National Development Complex, to foster better operational synergy between the two agencies.
An enhanced service experience
- The new $73 million MOM Bendemeer Office at 1500 Bendemeer Road will represent another milestone in MOM's commitment to service excellence. The four-storey, 25,739 sq m facility will be designed to improve the estimated 30,000 daily customer traffic flow and service experience.
- With the help of counters at the arrival hall, customers will be assessed on their requests and directed to dedicated zones for appointments. Service ambassadors will also be on hand to greet and assist customers who are looking for help at the building entrances. At the inner hall's Check-In Lobby, self-service check-in kiosks, assisted registration at terminals and fully-assisted check-in over the counters will be provided.
- A new Solutions Centre will house collaborative inter-departmental backroom efforts from staff who are experts in their fields. It will be designed to ensure cases are dealt with at one location, reducing inconvenience for customers who may need to move from counter to counter for multiple issues.
- MOM's Permanent Secretary Mr Loh Khum Yean said, "The new MOM Bendemeer Office is an important milestone in MOM's service excellence journey. It is designed with the customer at the heart of everything we do, putting customers first over process. We will be better able to bring the 'hardware' infrastructure provided at the new MOM Bendemeer Office together with the 'software' of our MOM personnel for a new service experience, when our doors open in mid-2012."
An environmentally-friendly design
- Bearing in mind MOM's commitment to corporate social responsibility, the Bendemeer Office will incorporate environmentally-friendly features such as:
a) Rain harvesting system for irrigation of landscape
b) Solar photovoltaic panels to provide power for toilets and corridor lighting
c) LED office lighting for more energy efficiency and lower heat emission
d) Under floor air distribution to improve energy efficiency
- Besides improving the building's energy efficiency by 30 per cent and reducing water consumption, sustainable construction practices and materials will be adopted during the building process. These include products with at least 30 per cent recycled content and use of products certified under the Singapore Green Labelling Scheme.
E-Engagement Platforms
- In addition to MOM's customer service counters, the ministry's corporate website also serves as an important point of access to MOM's information and services. Last updated in October 2006, the website has undergone a year-long makeover and the refreshed site now incorporates:
a) A more customer-centric information architecture for faster navigation;
b) New audience-based gateways for users to zoom in on what they want;
c) iSubmit – an online portal for customers to submit electronic documents for work pass issues, replacing deposit boxes and paper submission as the preferred document handling system; and
d) iSuggest – an online channel for users to provide suggestions on how MOM can improve its processes2.
- MOM's digital communication efforts have also been extended to include three new media initiatives, aimed at deepening engagement with existing stakeholders and to reach out to new online audiences:
a) An official corporate blog – "The Manpower Blog"
b) Official MOM Facebook Group
c) Official MOM YouTube Channel
Raising service standards and customer engagement
12. The design of the new MOM Bendemeer Office, corporate website and new media channels represent a significant highlight in the ministry’s quest for service excellence.
1 MOM Headquarters: 18 Havelock Road, Singapore 059764
MOM Kim Seng: 120 Kim Seng Road, Singapore 239436
Work Pass Services Centre: Tanjong Pagar Complex, 7 Keppel Road, #02-27/29, Singapore 089053
2 i-Suggest is a new e-service on MOM's website which allows a visitor to suggest ideas and improvements to the ministry's services and processes. Top suggestions will be posted on the website for four weeks for voting by the public. The suggestion with the highest number of votes will be selected for the quarterly Best Public Suggestion Award and may be implemented.
Annex A : MOM Bendemeer Office - Location Map
Annex B : MOM Bendemeer Office - Aerial View and View from Bendemeer Road
Annex C : Factsheet on MOM Website