They're offering more financial support to encourage the hiring, training and retaining of senior workers
Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower (MOM) will help employers absorb additional costs, in terms of salary or training, to encourage employers to recruit, retrain and retain senior workers.
During the Ministry of Manpower’s Committee of Supply speech on Tuesday (3 March), Minister Josephine Teo outlined initiatives following this year’s Budget 2020 announcement.
The initiatives aligned with Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat’s in Budget 2020 and targeted mid-career employees, aged 40 and above, as well as older workers nearing retirement.
“In terms of support to employers, the priority is to bring down the cost of recruiting and training for mid-career jobseekers,” Teo said. “We must also keep up the pace of business transformation and job redesign.”
This is why from April 1, MOM will boost salary support from 70% to 90% for all workers aged 40 and above enrolled in the “Place-and-Train” program.
Through the program, the government will “underwrite almost the entire salary and training costs” of mid-career recruits during the training period.
MOM will also provide a new incentive for employers who hire workers aged 40 and above, through any “Place-and-Train” or “Train-and-Place” program.
This will cover 20% of the new hire’s monthly salary for half a year, capped at $6,000 in total.
Teo said the “enhanced employers support” extends to workers above age 60.
“Depending on the duration of training, this means employers will get salary support of up to one year in most cases,” she said.
Other initiatives outlined were mentioned in the Budget 2020 speech, such as an expansion of current SkillsFuture program and the enhanced Productivity Solutions Grant to support job redesign and business transformation efforts.
Teo added that if training funds were not the issue – and a lack of time was, MOM will offer support accordingly.
“For companies with a clear plan to transform their business, MOM will consider supporting them with transitionary manpower,” she said. “Others may take advantage of the current downtime to increase training hours.”
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Silver workers
Additionally, Teo said support will be offered to silver workers – employees nearing retirement age.
She reminded that Singapore’s mandatory retirement age and re-employment age will be raised to 65 and 70 respectively by 2030.
“To help businesses adjust, each [policy change] will be implemented in small steps with sufficient notice,” she said.
“As outlined in the Budget, the government will support employers to implement these changes, including creating more age-friendly workplaces.”
She mentioned the new Senior Employment Credit (SEC), which will provide wage offsets to employers that hire senior Singaporean workers aged 55 and above.
However, she urged employers to do more.
“We are not depending on SEC alone to support senior employment,” she said. “We encourage progressive companies to raise the retirement and re-employment ages ahead of legislative schedule.”
Companies who do so can get up to $250,000 each in grants.
She quoted findings from Tripartite Workgroup on Older Workers that found that some senior workers would like to reduce their work intensity gradually as they approach retirement.
Others were “more prepared” to remain in the workforce if they can undertake part-time work arrangements during the re-employment phase.
Although the government won’t be legislating part-time re-employment, Teo said the new Part-Time Re-employment Grant will provide employers up to $125,000 for committing to providing part-time re-employment opportunities to eligible senior workers.
“This will benefit seniors who prefer lower work intensity, thereby encouraging them to stay in the workforce,” she said.
