Supporting Workforce Productivity in a Post-Pandemic Growth Phase
Singapore’s economy continues to shift into growth mode as we learn to live with COVID-19. This accelerates workforce challenges as workers must adapt and learn new and relevant skills even as labour churn intensifies. Skills mismatch has to be addressed through continued upskilling and career conversion programmes.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) released its Economic Survey report in February this year, with a highlight being the revision of our 2021 economic growth from 7.2 percent to 7.6 percent. MTI pointed out that the Singapore economy “is expected to continue to expand this year, although the outlook for the various sectors remains uneven.” Growth sectors shared in the report include manufacturing, information and communications, and finance and insurance sectors.
Good news about the economy is complemented by a Singapore Department of Statistics (SingStat) report that shared the median household income from work rose from SGD 9,189 in 2020 to SGD 9,520 in 2021. This is higher than pre-pandemic levels. Additionally, all income groups – except top earners – saw an increase in their average household income per member.
Singapore’s multi-ministry task force responsible for our pandemic response has also updated their rules regarding five important measures, that is, group sizes, mask-wearing, workplace requirements, safe distancing and capacity limits. The task force shared the update was done with the view of simplifying and streamlining the rules, with a view to ease measures if the situation remains under control and after the peak of the Omicron wave passes.
The announcements and updates are timely, and point towards the Government taking cues from various indicators to prepare the nation and workforce for recovery, and growth.
Growth is happening but unequal across sectors
As MTI noted in their report, growth sectors are enjoying a recovery but other sectors such as transport, hospitality and food continue to struggle. Key challenges for businesses in the slower sectors include rising costs, recouping losses incurred from previous restriction measures, talent and manpower shortages, as well as supply chain and logistics challenges. Some businesses are still learning and adapting to compete in a hybrid online and offline world, as many turned to digitalisation to survive during the pandemic. It is no longer enough to get by, as customer expectations require many of these businesses to innovate in order to thrive.
The workforce has to be open to change
The pandemic has driven many businesses to pivot, innovate, and relook at their offerings and value to the customer. This has created challenges for many in the workforce due to job displacement or skills becoming obsolete, which has an impact on their career mobility, job stability and income.
A harsh truth is that the workforce must be open to change, in the form of upskilling and continuous learning to remain relevant and provide value to their organisations. Changes in the workplace such as the adoption of technologies and digitalisation will continue. A worker’s initial education can only stretch up to a certain point before the knowledge becomes redundant.
Skills mismatch continues to be the major challenge for many workers, even as they grapple with labour (employee) churn and increasing expectations by organisations. Workers that are less mobile or find challenges to cross industries or execute a mid-career change might be impacted.
Addressing skills mismatch through continued upskilling and career conversion programmes
A 2018 MTI feature article shared the impact that skills mismatch has in terms of unsuccessful job applications. A key point shared was “…jobseekers to be mindful of the skills requirements of the jobs that they are applying for, and to actively acquire these skills in order to improve their chances of success”.
There are many options available for upskilling, ranging from SkillsFuture to the evolving roles of universities, where they are tasked to retrain up to 500,000 adult learners annually.
Workers can also consider career conversion programmes as a means of addressing the skills gap or initial mismatch. Organisations also benefit as they gain trained workers that can alleviate the manpower shortage they face due to churn or inability to find Singapore-based talent.
A current career conversion programme with Jurong Clementi Town Council demonstrates actionable insights that organisations can learn from.
The Built Environment Custodian Job Creation Programme with Jurong-Clementi Town Council (JRTC)
JRTC created new jobs in their Town Council for their residents.
JRTC partnered with e2i and the Real Estate & Construction Academy (RECA) on a Career Conversion programme with the objective of hiring local workers without prior experience in facilities management to work in newly designed vacancies and roles.
The programme involves hiring the workers and training them in areas such as minor repairs, custodial checking and promoting green practices.
JRTC residents were recruited and provided with the opportunity to be trained in facilities management, allowing them to enter the sector. Upon completion of the training, the workers will be deployed and over time, develop experience in their areas of expertise, leading to supervisory jobs and roles in facilities management.
For organisations considering a professional conversion programme opportunity, learnings from JRTC include:
- Churn and shortages are a reality of the employment landscape, organisations can be more open to hiring talent from outside their sector, or that lack experience in a specific role
- Workers are open to reskilling and changing sectors, if there is a relevant opportunity and sufficient value to switch
- Upskilling and lifelong learning, even for older workers, is no longer an unfamiliar concept; organisations can do more to support and motivate their workers to do so