14 March 2013 WORKPRO TOWARD PROGRESSIVE WORKPLACES

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1 14 March 2013 Helping Singaporeans Re-Join the Workforce and Employers Improve Progressive Workplace Practices WorkPro and Enterprise Training Support to start 1 April 2013 At the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) Committee of Supply 2013, Minister of State for Manpower Dr Amy Khor announced two new programmes WorkPro and Enterprise Training Support (ETS). 2. Under the ETS scheme, employers will receive a wide range of assistance to enhance training and HR capabilities while raising the skills of their current workforce through training. Employers will also be assisted and incentivised to plan their employees career development. 3. WorkPro will encourage economically inactive Singaporeans, including women and older citizens, to return to work. In addition, WorkPro will provide fully funded job preparatory courses to help back-to-work locals be better equipped for their new jobs. Back-to-work locals who are employed by these employers under WorkPro will also receive a Retention Bonus if they stay on the job for at least three months. WorkPro will also encourage employers to foster progressive workplaces, by providing help when they recruit older workers and back-to-work locals, or place their employees on flexible work arrangements (FWAs). WORKPRO TOWARD PROGRESSIVE WORKPLACES 4. WorkPro is a tripartite programme jointly developed by the MOM, Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA), Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) and National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) to encourage the adoption of flexible work arrangements and support the employment of older workers and back-towork locals. 5. WorkPro replaces the Work-Life Works! (WoW!) Fund, Flexi-Works! and the ADVANTAGE!, and serves as a one-stop programme to help employers put in place initiatives to improve work-life harmony, and to recruit and retain older workers and back-to-work locals to meet their manpower needs.

2 6. How will WorkPro work? WorkPro provides funding support to help employers and workers alike through the following: i) Support for job-redesign, on-the-job training, recruitment and retention efforts so as to support their ageing and multi-generational workforce and to tap on back-to-work locals. Each company can receive funding support across a series of grants aimed at these improvements. ii) Support for work-life initiatives to improve work-life harmony, through a Work-Life Grant. The Grant has 2 components a. A Developmental Grant aimed at helping employers defray the costs of implementing FWAs and other work-life programmes; and b. An FWA Incentive to motivate employers who have implemented flexible work arrangements for work-life friendly workplaces. iii) Support for back-to-work locals: Individuals who have not been working for three months or more will receive support to become more job-ready and improve their employability. They can attend fully funded job preparation workshops, and receive a Retention Bonus. Those from lowincome households will also receive additional help in the form of a onetime Transport Allowance. 7. A total of $170 million will be made available to companies over 3 years under WorkPro. SMEs are expected to form 70% of the companies that will benefit from WorkPro. More information on the WorkPro funding support for employers and workers can be found in Annex A. ENTERPRISE TRAINING SUPPORT (ETS) ENHANCE TRAINING FOR GREATER PRODUCTIVITY 8. Providing companies with further support for their training and capability development needs is the ETS scheme, jointly developed by the MOM and WDA. ETS offers a holistic HR and training support package for companies to train and develop their employees, and raise productivity. 9. Under the ETS, each company can receive funding support for (a) their employees training; (b) developing training plans customised to their needs; as well as (c) enhancing the company s human resource development and management functions. 10. ETS will offer five types of grants

3 i) Training Grant, ii) Capability Grant, iii) Curriculum Contextualisation and Alignment Grant, iv) HR Development Grant, and v) Compensation and Benefits System Review Grant. These grants will support companies in training their workforce, as well as build capability in developing and delivering in-house and On-the-Job (OJT) training. At the same time, ETS will also defray costs incurred by companies, in enhancing their human resource development functions and in reviewing and benchmarking their compensation and benefits system to restructure wages. 11. Under ETS, a total of $20 million will be made available to companies over 2 years. SMEs are expected to form 70% of the companies that will benefit from ETS. A detailed explanation into each grant and how it benefits the company is found in Annex B. What companies should do 12. To make it easier for employers to tap on these programmes, they will be offered through integrated one-stop touch points. Companies who wish to tap on ETS and/or WorkPro can call WDA s Hotline at or WDA_Enquiry@wda.gov.sg for more information. SMEs who wish for one-stop service can approach the SME Centres. For WorkPro, companies or individuals can also approach the following programme partners for more information and to come onboard the programme: NTUC ( ULive@Work Mr Ong Sin Tiong, Lead Consultant Tel: ongst@ntuc.org.sg NTUC NTUC Women s Development Secretariat (WDS) Ms Tan Woon Woon Tel: woonwoon@ntuc.org.sg Ms Anna Koh, Lead Consultant Tel: kohsm@ntuc.org.sg SNEF (

4 Mr Lee Yew Cheong, Senior Manager (Workplace Diversity Management) Tel: Ms Qorrine Lee, Senior Executive (Workplace Diversity Management) Tel: ~End of Release~

5 Annex A SUMMARY OF GRANT COMPONENTS & INCENTIVES UNDER WORKPRO For Employers Workplace Improvement and Job-Redesign Job Redesign Grant (Max. $300,000 per Work-Life Grant (Max. $160,000 per The Job Redesign Grant supports the costs of redesigning the workplace to help employers recruit and retain mature workers, and back-to-work locals. It can be used to cover components like equipment for automation, implementation of HR policies and systems, training for newly recruited workers, absentee payroll, recruitment advertisements and consultancy fees for existing WDA-funded enterprise productivity programmes. The Work-Life Grant provides funding support for the implementation of work-life strategies, particularly flexible work arrangements (FWAs), to help employers attract and retain employees and to better support work-life harmony. The Work-Life Grant consists of (i) a Developmental Grant of up to $40,000 to defray the developmental costs of implementing work-life strategies, particularly FWAs and (ii) a FWA Incentive of up to $120,000 to motivate employers to sustain FWA utilisation for at least 30% of their employees. Organisations may tap on either or both components of the Work-Life Grant. Age Management Grant (Max. $20,000 per This grant helps employers acquire the necessary skills and knowledge on age management practices such as good re-employment practices, performance management and job redesign, and encourages employers to take the first step towards implementing these practices. Recruitment and Retention Incentives On-the-Job Training Allowance (Max. $50,000 per New Hire Retention Incentive (NHRI) (Max. $50,000 per The OJT Training Allowance incentivises employers to recruit and train back-to-work locals. Employers will receive an OJT training allowance of up to one-month s salary, capped at $2,000, for each new worker. The workers must be hired on permanent or contract positions and placed on a structured OJT programme for two months. The NHRI incentivises employers to implement measures to retain newlyhired mature workers and back-to-work locals under WorkPro. Employers must also assign a mentor to the newly-hired back-to-work locals. Employers will receive a NRHI of up to one-month s salary, capped at

6 $2,000, for each worker hired and retained for 6 to 12 months. The worker hired must be on a permanent or contract position for at least 12 months. For Workers Assistance for jobseekers Job Preparation Support To improve job seekers job readiness and enhance their employability and job retention, back-to-work locals can attend a free Job Preparation Workshop that is specially tailored to equip them with the right skills and knowledge to return to the workforce. Incentives for recruited workers Transport Allowance (Max. $200 per worker) Retention Bonus (Max. $1,200 per worker) All newly-hired workers hired under WorkPro by their employers who are from low-income households will receive a one-time transport allowance of $200. To incentivise back-to-work locals who are newly-hired under WorkPro by their employers to stay on the job, they will receive Retention Bonuses of up to $1,200 over a period of 12 months. *Back-to-work locals refer to Singaporeans and PRs who have not been working for the past three months or more.

7 SUMMARY OF GRANT COMPONENTS & INCENTIVES UNDER ETS Annex B Type of Grant 1. Training Grant (Up to $200,000 per 2. Capability Grant (One-time grant of $20,000 per 3. Curriculum Contextualisation and Alignment Grant (Up to $52,000 per How it Helps Companies Forms the core of the ETS scheme. It supports the cost of non-wsq structured training and OJT, with bundled WSQ training forming at least 30% of an enterprise training plan. The overall enterprise training plan should be relevant to at least 50% of the company s local (SC/PR) workforce. Help SMEs and non-smes to build in-house capabilities in the areas of training delivery and infrastructure. Helps companies to defray costs in developing Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) training modules, both in terms of content and training delivery. The grant will also support development of On-the-Job (OJT) training blueprints for the company. 4. HR Systems Development Grant (Up to $60,000 per One-time grant to help companies to: Develop a system to administer and monitor a holistic training plan which would include identifying skills needed of the workforce and developing training pathways; or Integrate WSQ into their training plans and HR policy; or Enhance existing or develop new learning and development systems to support adoption of WSQ and measure learning gains; or Develop career progression pathways, tied to the training roadmap with WSQ components.

8 5. Compensation and Benefits System Review Grant (Up to $15,000 per To help companies to defray costs of engaging consultancy services to conduct enterprise-wide industry salary benchmark reviews and restructuring of wages, to attract local talent and retain them in a tight labour market.