1. 1st Age Friendly Workforce Asia Conference
3 November 2011
Harnessing Mature Talent through Fair
Employment Practices

2. Agenda
What is Fair Employment
Insights from TAFEP „s Research

3. How Diverse Teams Work
Diverse teams
Productivity well-managed
Homogenous teams
But Well-managed
Diverse teams
NOT well-managed
Time

4. Why Being Fair Benefits Business
• Improved Talent Recruitment and Retention.
– Widens pool of potential talent.
– Gets best person for the job.
(avoid paying the price of prejudice)
– Better job fit.
Employees
– Increased morale. want to be
– Lower turnover. treated
fairly!
• Enhance Leadership Skills and Effectiveness in globalised
fast changing business environment.

5. Why Being Fair Benefits Business
• Enhances Image and Builds Goodwill.
• Raise Productivity through:
– Enhance Problem Solving.
– More New Ideas and Creativity.
– Better Feedback.
– Better Handling of Old and New
Customers.
– Better Deployment Flexibility.

6. About TAFEP
• Tripartite: Representatives
from MOM, SNEF and NTUC.
• Co-chaired by Mr Bob Tan
(Vice President, SNEF) & Mr
Heng Chee How (Deputy
Secretary General, NTUC).
• Promotes fair, responsible and
merit-based employment
practices.

7. What is Fair Employment
• Hire on Merit (i.e. non discriminatory).
• Focus on relevant criteria (i.e. not Age, Race,
Language, Religion, Gender, Family Status,
Disability IF not relevant to the job.
• Abide by Labour Laws and Tripartite Guidelines.

8. Why promote not legislate?
• Looking at other countries
- Compliance cost can be high
- Addresses more form than substance
• Challenge is changing mindset & practices
• Hence the promotional approach using Tripartite
partnership
• Worked before with non-discriminatory job ads
(Reduction from 1.7% in 2008 to 1% in 2009)

9. Research
•Leading Practices in Managing Mature Employee
*With SHRI. Local and Overseas examples
•Harnessing the potential of a multi-gen workforce
*Study involving over 3,500 local employees
•Hiring the Silver Generation
-Insights for Employers and Job Seekers
*Study involving over 300 mature job seekers and employees

10. Leading Practices for
Managing Mature Employees
• Conducted with SHRI
• 77 Employers responded to survey
• In-depth interviews with 16 firms
• Showcase leading practices locally
and internationally

11. Recommendations for Employers
• Top 3 strategies adopted by companies
 Providing relevant training to upgrade skills of
mature employees
 Hiring retired employees as consultants/
provision of flexible work arrangements
 Regularly monitor health and well-being of
mature employees

12. Multi-Gen Workforce Study
•Over 3500 employees
•30 Singapore based firms
•Survey + Focus Groups
•Online + Hard Copy
•English & Mandarin

13. Key Findings
• Most (95%) work with different generations
• Most (81%) view that multi-gen teams improves
organisational performance
• Most (69%) rarely or never have difficulty working with other
generations. However:
– Some Gen Ys (37%) have more difficulty than older Boomers (20%)
working with other generations.
– When probed, some Gen X & Y prefer to work with colleagues their
same age or younger (the “parent” or “pai seh” effect)
• Gen X is now the majority supervisor (overtook Baby
boomers)
• Each generation considers themselves more committed than
other generations (except Gen Y)

14. Hiring the Silver Generation
• Over 300 mature job seekers
and employees
• Focus groups + Interviews
• Practical Insights:
 Employers – Review policies
to be more age-friendly
 Mature Job Seekers – Enhance
Employability

15. Key Findings
“Successful” tended to have more age-diverse
interviewers
Age Composition of Interviewers
Young Similar Age/ Older Mixture of Young and Old
"Unsuccessful" 55.4% 28.7% 15.8%
"Successful" 41.7% 36.9% 21.4%

16. Findings/Suggestions
 Review composition of interviewers / selection panel
– Include an older interviewer
– Ensure all interviewers are trained on merit-based
selection
 Adopt age friendly practices
– Give regular feedback on performance
– Assign a buddy (ideally similar age) to ease settling in
– Seek to understand differing life-stage needs of
mature hires
– Continue to provide training opportunities for mature
hires
– Provide age management training especially for
younger supervisors.

17. Suggestions for Employers
 Explore non-internet means of reaching mature talent
 Offer part time or flexible work options to attract those
who can and want to contribute but can‟t commit to full-
time work
 Implement health management programmes

18. Implications
•Important for organisations to understand the
issues and acquire required skills
• Capability development is for CEO, HR,
supervisors, colleagues and mature employees
themselves.
•Mindset change is key (difficult when defensive).
This is a long term effort.
• Link with Disability as we are ALL getting older
•More complex with multiple discrimination.
•Make accommodations for life-stage but beware of
dysfunctional rescuing

19. Thank You