Speech at Speech by BG (NS) Tan Chuan-Jin, Minister of State for Manpower and National Development at Delta Air Lines, Inc. WSQ Graduation Ceremony 2011 on 29 July 2011, 9:00AM, SingPost Auditorium

BG (NS) Tan Chuan-Jin, Minister of State for Manpower and National Development, SingPost Auditorium

1. The global recession of 2009 was a difficult period for many Singaporeans and Singapore-based companies. It was through the hard work and resilience of our people and companies who worked closely with the Government that we managed to bring our unemployment rate from the height of 3.3% in the third quarter of 2009, down to 2.1% in the second quarter of this year.
2. In the face of adversity during the downturn, Delta Air Lines is an excellent example of how training has played an important role in maintaining its operations in Singapore and its subsequent expansion into a thriving reservations centre in the Asia-Pacific region.
3. In October 2008, Delta Air Lines announced its merger with Northwest Airlines. With the merger, Delta Air Lines acquired Northwest Airlines' global reservations centre in Singapore. A key concern of Delta Air Lines was the challenge of retraining Northwest Airlines’ employees to operate under Delta Air Lines' reservation system.
4. The solution was presented by the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA), which convinced Delta Air Lines to retain the Northwest Airlines' employees in Singapore and embark on the Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) training to re-train them.
5. The strength and competitive advantage of the multi-racial Singapore workforce who is conversant in a diverse number of languages and dialects, coupled with the success of the WSQ training convinced Delta Air Lines to make the bold decision to expand its business in Singapore. This ensured that jobs remained in Singapore.
6. With the support of WDA, the company further enhanced their training programme and aligned them to the WSQ framework to become an in-house WSQ Approved Training Organisation (ATO). This not only met the unique training needs of the company, it also helped to further develop Delta Air Lines' in-house trainers.
7. These changes enabled Delta Air Lines to create a sustainable manpower development plan to effectively manage the cost of retention and training by grooming quality, motivated and inspired workers. This includes various incentives for employees who have shown improvement in productivity, including quarterly performance bonus. This led to a 54% increase in Delta Air Lines' labour productivity and a reduction in reservations handling time by 40% in the first half of 2011 compared to the same period the year before. Staff morale also improved with reservations staff visibly more confident and efficient when handling reservations. Their higher efficiency and productivity also led to a 22% increase in sales. The importance and benefits of such training became evident during the volcanic eruption in Iceland, as their employees were better equipped to handle the major flight interruptions.
8. The increase in strength and depth of skills and expertise in the Delta Air Lines' staff who had undergone WSQ training convinced Delta Air Lines to align their strategic plans to base and grow their regional reservations activities from Singapore to countries such as Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand – this is a testament to the effectiveness of our WSQ training. Delta Air Lines' Reservations Sales team more than doubled due to its expansion. Today, Delta Air Lines has both a global and Asia-Pacific reservations call centre based in Singapore.
9. In many ways, our efforts at providing training not only ensured that jobs were retained; productivity was increased and more jobs were created as the company grew from strength to strength.
   
   INVEST IN CET TO BOOST WORKFORCE PRODUCTIVITY AND COMPETITIVENESS
10. The air travel sector is volatile sector which is easily affected by both external and internal influences including acts of nature, fuel prices and economic developments. Singapore's tight labour market also makes it challenging for airlines to find and retain talent.
11. To stand out from the competition, airlines have to do more than just maintaining their operating margins and increasing fuel efficiency to remain viable. They must find innovative ways of delivering higher service quality without simply relying on more workers.
12. A key element is to ensure that the workers are well-trained, well-equipped and well-motivated to handle more complex and demanding tasks; and to be flexible enough to keep up with constant changes. This would only be possible if both companies and the workers themselves invest in skills upgrading and make an effort to retain the currency of their knowledge.
13. Through the WSQ system, we have created a reliable and relevant training framework where programmes are developed in joint consultation with the industry. This way, workers are able to acquire relevant skills that are in line with the demands of the companies that hire them. The example of Delta Air Lines highlighted earlier is a good testament to the effectiveness of training in improving a company’s operations.
14. At the broader level, our efforts have also been encouraging. In the annual 2010 survey conducted by WDA to evaluate outcomes of WSQ training, 65% of the 2,000 companies interviewed reported that their workers showed increased work productivity after undergoing WSQ training. 94% of companies and 88% of trainees also gave positive feedback on applying the skills they learnt at WSQ courses in their work.
15. Beyond the broad level statistics, nothing can be more convincing than hearing first hand from the workers themselves.
16. Ms Vivien Lim Pei Jie, a Delta Air Lines employee, shared how training has helped her become more productive and taught her many different techniques to improve sales figures. She also gained confidence when interacting with clients and felt that she is more equipped to provide better customer service. All this had spurred her on in her quest for excellence and helped her eventually achieve her goal of being one of the top three employees on The Summit List – a list that recognises Delta's best reservation call centre staff.
    
    CONCLUSION
17. I congratulate all 191 graduates of Delta Air Lines on attaining their WSQ Certificates in Tour and Travel Services. They are shining examples which will inspire their colleagues to take up training and embrace lifelong learning.
18. I would like to take this opportunity to urge Delta Air Lines to continue its investment in employee training and expand the number of WSQ courses under their training programme. Through these measures, Delta Air Lines will be able to improve and increase the skill sets of their employees, and lead the company to scale greater heights.
19. I would also like to encourage WDA and companies in general to continue to work together to enable continuing education and training (CET) to take place. This would be important for our workers and our companies, and for us to continue to ensure we create good jobs for Singaporeans.
20. Thank you.