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Among the recommendations shared by the Alliance for Action on Widening Access to Talent was a call for structured programmes as a means to attract students, seniors and stay-at-home mothers to take up hard-to-fill jobs.
Singapore's Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) are set to collaborate with the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), Trade Associations and Chambers (TACs), the HR community, and employers to implement the eight recommendations from the Alliance for Action (AfA) on Widening Access to Talent.
This was announced by Senior Minister of State for Manpower, Zaqy Mohamad on 10 October 2024 (Thursday). The eight recommendations fall under four key areas previously identified by the AfA, that will support employers widen their access to talent, despite increasing manpower constraints:
- Leverage transferrable expertise from adjacent talent pools through skills-first hiring practices.
- Improve workforce agility and retention through skills-first workforce development to promote internal mobility.
- Increase job accessibility for workforce segments with diverse needs through job redesign, and
- Uplift HR capabilities to enable skills-first practices, and support SMEs to access HR services.
The recommendations are as follow:
Leverage transferable expertise from adjacent talent pools through skills-first hiring practices
Recommendation #1
Encourage adoption of a National Skills Taxonomy and to develop a database with verified skills of the workforce to enable skills-first hiring .
- The SkillsFuture Singapore’s Skills Framework could be used and complemented with accessible skills data of our workforce.
Responses from MOM, SNEF and ecosystem partners
MOM is supportive. Under Career Health SG, the Government is developing initiatives to provide individuals and employers with better skills data to support skills-first hiring and development.
Recommendation #2
Develop sector or job-specific standardised assessment tests for skills-heavy jobs to help employers assess transferable skills of candidates from different backgrounds.
Responses from MOM, SNEF and ecosystem partners
SNEF is supportive. As a start, SGTech and SMF will develop this for their respective sectors in partnership with SNEF.
Improve workforce agility and retention through skills-first workforce development to promote internal mobility
Recommendation #3
Develop playbooks and identify off-the-shelf HR tech solutions to guide and simplify implementation of internal marketplace solutions.
Responses from MOM, SNEF and ecosystem partners
MOM is supportive. IHRP will work with the industry to develop playbooks. MOM will also work with the relevant agencies to support SMEs with the adoption of suitable HR tech solutions that can be realised by tapping into resources such as NTUC Company Training Committee (CTC), Productivity Solutions Grant and skills profiling tools).
Recommendation #4
Build a ‘talent co-development’ model where employers collaborate to aggregate talent development opportunities.
- Extend from the concept of how employers support talent flow to joint venture (JV) partners.
- Start with skills-heavy sectors where talent retention is critical e.g. manufacturing.
Responses from MOM, SNEF and ecosystem partners
SNEF will work with SMF to design a pilot.
Recommendation #5
Enable employers to provide career guidance and planning to their workers for career and skills development.
Responses from MOM, SNEF and ecosystem partners
SNEF is supportive. As the Jobs-Skills Integrator for Retail (JSIT-R), SNEF has already incorporated structured career planning workshops for employers in the retail sector and will extend this to cover more sectors. SNEF will also work with suitable partners to scale this further.
NTUC and its affiliated unions will also work with companies through Company Training Committees (CTC) to encourage employers to formulate structured career development plans for their workers, including training opportunities.
Increase job accessibility for workforce segments with diverse needs through job redesign
Recommendation #6
Develop structured programmes as a means to attract students, seniors and stay-at-home mothers to take up hard-to-fill jobs.
Responses from MOM, SNEF and ecosystem partners
SNEF and SRA will work together to design a structured traineeship programme for students to take on retail frontline jobs to learn valuable transferrable soft skills as a start and will explore broadening the structured programme for seniors and stay-at-home mothers later. NTUC will also support the scaling up of the programme by leveraging NTUC’s e2i talent pool and their outreach to jobseekers through job matching and career advisory services.
Uplift HR capabilities to enable skills-first practices and support SMEs to access HR services
Recommendation #7
Increase access of SMEs to HR advisory and consultancy services to improve employers’ skills-first hiring and workforce development capabilities.
Responses from MOM, SNEF and ecosystem partners
MOM is supportive. Employers can currently tap on NTUC CTC grant, administered by NTUC’s e2i, to support their access to HR advisory services or upskill capabilities in HR, as part of their business transformation projects.
The AfA’s recommendations will enable employers to better attract, develop and retain talent, which will in turn improve productivity and support business growth.
In addition, MOM will work with IHRP to pilot “CHRO-as-a-Service” to provide accessible HR advisory and consultancy services by tapping on the expertise from the certified HR community or leveraging technology (e.g. Chat Bots).
HR practices will need to transform to support business transformation. In that regard, as part of its role managing the Job Redesign Centre for Excellence (JRCoE), IHRP, in collaboration with Workforce Singapore, launched the Job
Redesign Playbook for Human Resources to support the shift of the role of HR professionals into strategic business partners within companies.
Recommendation #8
Stronger industry push for HR to level up through IHRP certification, which provides employers access to external support and resources from the certified HR community.
Responses from MOM, SNEF and ecosystem partners
SNEF is supportive and will work with TACs to mobilise their members and advocate for HR professionals to obtain their IHRP. certification.
MOM and SNEF shared their support towards the eight recommendations. "We thank industry partners for coming together in this industry-led AfA to develop tangible solutions that are grounded in real business needs and operating environments," MOM shared.
The tripartite partners also urged all employers to adopt skills-first hiring and workforce development practices to enhance talent competitiveness amid slowing resident workforce growth.
"MOM and SNEF will work with NTUC, TACs and the HR community to develop and provide programmes and resources to support employers to do so."
In January 2024, MOM and SNEF invited NTUC, TACs, business leaders, and industry representatives to form the AfA on Widening Access to Talent to develop industry-led solutions to boost talent competitiveness amid rising manpower constraints caused by an ageing workforce.
The AfA is co-chaired by Dr. Bicky Bhangu, President of Rolls Royce SEA, Pacific and South Korea, and SNEF Council Member, along with Aileen Tan, Group Chief People and Sustainability Officer at Singtel.
The alliance includes industry representatives from the Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Manufacturing and Retail sectors, representatives from the Singapore Manufacturing Federation (SMF), SGTech, Singapore Retailers Association (SRA), IHRP and NTUC. The full list of AfA members can be found here.
Over nine months, AfA members piloted solutions within their industries and companies to gain insights into the manpower challenges employers face. This hands-on, iterative approach allowed the AfA members to identify the above-stated four key areas that will support employers widen their access to talent, despite increasing manpower constraints.
Lead image / AfA
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