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Speech at Dairy Farm Singapore, "Golden Employees" Celebration

Mr Tan Chuan-Jin, Minister of State for Manpower and National Development, Level 3 Grand Ballroom, Marriott Singapore Hotel, 320 Orchard Road

Employment practices
Mr Boon Yoon Chiang
Chairman
Jardine Matheson Group of Companies (Singapore)

Mr Alex Tay
Regional Director
Dairy Farm South Asia

Partners from the Singapore National Employers Federation,

the Food Drinks and Allied Workers' Union,

Employees of Dairy Farm and Distinguished Guests,

A very good morning to all of you.

Introduction

  1. I would like to start by thanking Dairy Farm Singapore and the organisers for inviting me to your "Golden Employees" celebration. It is a meaningful gesture to organise a special event to honour your older workers and their contributions, and I am heartened to know how much value you place on them.

    Re-employment Legislation From 1 January 2012
  2. Today's event not only commemorates the past achievements of your 275 Golden Employees. By marking their re-employment, it also recognises your belief in their continued contributions. With the Re-employment legislation kicking in from 1st January this year, re-employment is now a reality, not just for employees of Dairy Farm Singapore but also for all Singaporeans. Employers are now required to offer re-employment to their eligible employees when they reach the age of 62.
  3. Getting to this point has not been easy, and much of the credit goes to our tripartite partners, who have been working closely together since 2007 to prepare employers, unions and employees for this milestone. For instance — to help employers implement re-employment policies, various training programmes have been put in place, such as the PREPARE programme by ASME1 and the 4R (Recruit, Retain, Re-employ, Re-career) Programme by SNEF2. We also have the ADVANTAGE! Scheme, which provides companies with a grant of up to $400,000 to recruit, retain and re-employ older workers; as well as the ACCELERETE programme3, which provides targeted coaching assistance for companies. More importantly, it is the change in mindset. This depends on individuals and employees themselves to realise they can continue to contribute positively and upgrade themselves with skills. At the same time, employers should start looking at our workers with different lenses. We have an ageing population — it is a reality. We should take this opportunity to tap on experiences of our older workers.
  4. The tripartite partners have also made available a variety of information resources on re-employment. We have an internet portal (www.re-employment.sg) as a one-stop information centre on re-employment for employers and employees. We have also developed a re-employment guidebook for employers and sent a copy to every employer with at least 10 local employees. To ensure that both employers and employees have a good understanding of their obligations and rights under the new Retirement and Re-employment Act, MOM is ramping up on its Re-employment Ready publicity campaign. Some of you might have seen our print and TV ads which are currently ongoing. Of course, we are only into our second month of re-employment, and it is still early days to make any conclusion about the implementation. However, I am optimistic that with the initiatives that we have introduced to date, implementation should be relatively smooth.
  5. In the case of Dairy Farm Singapore, I understand that the management worked closely together with the union, FDAWU, and its branches to implement its re-employment policies. The ability of the management and union to bring about a win-win outcome for the company and workers is testament to the good union-management relations in your organisation.

    Moving Beyond Legislation
  6. Re-employment is merely one step in our objective to enhance employment opportunities for older Singaporeans and their employability. With our country's increasing life expectancy and ageing workforce, we are starting to experience the rise of a Silver Tsunami, which will soon be felt across our employment landscape. A Singaporean born today will live up to 82 and if you are 65, you will probably live up to 85. Now, we see mature employees working alongside their younger counterparts, sometimes as mentors, sometimes as peers or subordinates. By 2020, about one in six Singapore residents will be 65 years or older. It will become increasingly commonplace, and both employers and employees must prepare themselves for a multi-generational workplace.
  7. Some employers may not have realised the value of their older employees and the contributions they can make with their experience and skills. This negative mindset should be corrected, and the tripartite partners are working to help change such a perception and bring about a mindset shift among employers. I am glad that Dairy Farm Singapore is a supporter of the value your Golden Employees bring, and this is demonstrated not just through the implementation of your re-employment policies, but also through your efforts in developing older employees.
  8. I am heartened to learn about the example of Mr. Arumugam Haridass, also popularly known as Dass. He joined Giant Hypermarket, one of the retail chains under Dairy Farm Singapore, as an Assistant Department Manager some 11 years ago. Dass, who is 63, is now a Department Manager in charge of receiving operations. As a valued member of the team, apart from carrying out his duties diligently, he always makes himself available to help his colleagues and share his knowledge and experience.
  9. Dass' example shows us that older workers can develop their careers and progress well if they continue to contribute to the organisation and play their part by staying active and continuously upgrading themselves to remain relevant. I would like all of us to challenge ourselves to also think about how we can make the work environment even more conducive for everyone. How can we develop a more age-inclusive workplace and bring about better synergy to the organisation? Can we re-design our work processes to better support a multi-generational workforce? Can we introduce flexibility in our operations to meet the needs of employees, perhaps through more flexible work arrangements? These are important questions that we will need to think about if we are to create a more inclusive, engaging and productive environment at our workplaces. How you as an employer treats your older workers will be noted by your younger workers as they too someday will become older workers. This is important not just from a workplace perspective but how we do shape society at large. Efforts like these taken by the Dairy Farm Group in the workplace for instance will have a bearing on society at large. It is important to do so, so that we have an inclusive society. I strongly urge all companies to give serious thought to these issues as they will shape their ability to attract and retain valued employees who could make a difference to the organisation. The work profile of our workforce is changing. The companies that embrace this now will stand to gain by learning how to manage it better and gain the loyalty of their workers who will then see an incentive to stay on in this company. At the same time, as you are aware, we have been tightening on the foreign worker front. We do believe it is important to remain open and diverse with a Singaporean core in our workforce. It is also a good opportunity for us to re-look our work processes to see how we can supplement our workforce needs by looking at this segment of our workforce (i.e. our older employees).

    Conclusion
  10. On this note, I would like to commend Dairy Farm Singapore once again for celebrating your Golden Employees. I hope Dairy Farm Singapore will serve as an encouragement to other organisations to pursue good people management practices. I also applaud all Golden Employees for their valuable contributions, and I hope they will continue to contribute for many more years to come.
  11. Thank you. I hope you have an enjoyable event.
1 The Programme for Re-employment: A Road Map for Employers (PREPARE) is a programme for employer members of ASME. Participants attend a two-day workshop on various HR aspects of implementing re-employment, and receive two months of mentoring assistance in developing HR systems and processes.
2 The 4R is a training programme run by SNEF for its members, and instructs participants on implementing re-employment, including planning and preparing employees, preparing re-employment contracts and job arrangements, providing assistance to employees who are ineligible for re-employment, etc.
3 Under the ACCELErating Re-employment through Tripartite Efforts (ACCELERETE) programme, SNEF and NTUC will provide free consultancy services to help employers align their HR policies and re-employment practices to the Tripartite Guidelines.