HR is crucial in enabling business success through disruptive times, says Singapore’s minister
Companies can only reap the full successes of their transformation if they continue to invest in human capital, said Singapore’s Minister of State for Manpower Zaqy Mohamad.
This is why HR teams have a vital role in driving business success through disruptive times.
He also reiterated HR’s role in supporting Singapore’s increasingly ageing workforce, aligning with recent changes to the city state’s retirement policy.
On HR transformation
In his speech, the minister focused on how technology helps build capacity and capability of HR teams. He was speaking at an industry gala organised by the Singapore Human Resources Institute.
“It is important that HR professionals tap on tech to identify skills gaps and propose ways to develop the workforce in line with business needs,” said Mohamad.
From those insights, HR can introduce initiatives that better engage the workforce and build a stronger organisational culture, he said. Besides the general workforce, HR leaders should also continually invest in developing their team members.
He believes that HR tech can free up time from more transactional tasks and build up the team’s capacity to improve workforce outcomes.
Supporting the silver workforce
Mohamad also recapped HR’s role in supporting the silver workforce:
- First, HR can offer older workers with structured career planning sessions to help them with career development and prepare for re-employment.
“Older workers are keen to reskill in the future economy, but they are also more likely to look to employers to signal what training they should undertake,” he said.
READ MORE: 'Early' career chats key to managing older workers
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Second, employers can provide more part-time opportunities for older workers.
“Many of them have much experience to share and would like to continue contributing to their companies,” he said. “At the same time, they prefer to work less intensely. Employers can stand to benefit if they can retain these experienced workers who may otherwise retire prematurely.”
- Third, HR can adopt a more transformational redesign of jobs that will raise the age ceiling of more workers, rather than just task-specific job redesign that benefits only a few workers at a time.
