The Singapore Business Federation has recommended the entire country’s business community to pledge to sustainable employment practices in addition to the six recommendations to PMETs, mature workers, and those in essential services such as cleaning etc, according to a report launched by the SBF. 

“Sustainable employment enables employees, customers, and communities to thrive. This leads to better businesses and long-term growth,” said S S Teo, SBF Chairman. 

Some of the recommendations include consciously avoiding inherent bias that leads to discrimination in the workplace based on age, upskilling PMETs, and redesigning the jobs to enable mature employees to remain relevant in a dynamically transforming workplace. 

When choosing vendors, the SBF urges buyers to make a responsible choice and transform the service sector through innovation--for higher wages and better working conditions. 

Additionally, developing platforms that would involve high-skilled individuals into new types of gig work would increasingly become crucial in the future of the business world in Singapore and SBF has asked private sector players and/or trade associations to help drive such platforms. 

With 61 firms having already signed the Sustainable Employment Pledge, other firms can also join and commit to improving their employment practices accordingly. 

“Many people may be aware of these practices, at the back of their mind..but in this current economic environment, many companies are just thinking about survival,” Teo said. “Yet, having happy, committed workers is in fact key to economic survival and success.” 

The SBF is also setting up an office that will be in-charge of monitoring the progress of this initiative. The aim is to set the stage for other firms to join in and become a part of the sustainable employment drive in order to ensure that Singapore focuses on a scalable and sustainable business model. 

Key takeaway 

As Singapore businesses face constantly changing economic times in light of the US-China trade wars and the ongoing digital transformation, the need of the hour is to enable companies to become more sustainable and scalable. To that end, the Sustainable Employment Pledge is one step towards getting business leaders on the same platform and creating awareness.