A good workplace culture will have a positive impact beyond your employees and organisation – it will also benefit the entire Singapore economy, says Second Minister for Manpower Josephine Teo.
Speaking at the Great Place to Work Best Workplaces Awards, Teo said positive cultures foster industries that are highly-productive, innovation-driven, internationally-oriented, skills-focussed and inclusive and enabling.
“Great places to work are more likely to weather the storms and emerge stronger,” she said. “Given the right environment, employees will feel engaged and would want to stick around.”
While executives may be more likely to focus on revenue generation and profit realisation, investments in workplace culture can lead to great benefits as well, the second minister added.
For these investments to have real, tangible impact, they must exist on every level of the organisation – from the junior employees to the C-suite.
Teo also said that every generation of employees comes with different values and goals, so the norms in every organisation must constantly evolve.
These norms, for instance, have to do with contract employment, flexible work arrangements and grievance handling – all covered by Tripartite Standards.
Each of them, she said, spells out a set of verifiable actions that good employers take.
“For example, an employer that adopts the Tripartite Standard on FWAs commit to appoint a senior management to champion FWAs at the workplace, and to inform all its staff what FWAs it offers and that it is willing to consider requests for FWA,” she explained.
Teo said that since the Standards launched at the end of July, almost 500 organisations have adopted them to date. This covers more than 360,000 workers.
“We hope they help job seekers to differentiate between the so-so places to work and the great places to work,” she concluded.
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