from straitstimes.com:
Most civil servants to get yearly $500 ‘well-being’ benefit; more health subsidies for all public officers
An annual benefit called FlexiGrow is intended to empower civil service officers to take charge of their longer-term well being and growth. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG
Wong Pei Ting
Correspondent
UPDATED
JUL 10, 2024, 10:52 PM
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SINGAPORE – From October 2024, eligible civil servants will receive $500 every year that they can use to support their health, well-being and individual growth.
On top of this annual benefit called FlexiGrow, the Public Service Division (PSD) will also raise medical and dental benefits for all public officers starting from Jan 1, 2025.
Public officers’ medical subsidies at private clinics will go up from $20 to up to $50 per visit, while dental subsidies will rise from $120 to up to $250 per year.
Announcing the news on July 10 to applause from the audience at the opening of the Public Service Week at ITE College Central, Minister-in-charge of the Public Service Chan Chun Sing said that operating in an environment of constant change can be unsettling, even exhausting, for public officers.
“We have a saying in MOE (the Ministry of Education) and in the public service: All of you pour your hearts out to serve, but you cannot keep pouring your hearts out to serve if you are not growing, if you are not being taken care of,” said Mr Chan, who is also Education Minister.
“We need to take care of ourselves. We need to take care of each other in this long journey, and this is what our public service is committed to.”
The public service comprises 152,000 public officers working in 16 ministries and more than 50 statutory boards. The civil service is part of the public service. It has about 86,000 officers working in government ministries.
FlexiGrow is intended to empower civil service officers to take charge of their longer-term well-being and growth, based on their diverse needs, while medical and dental benefits have been stepped up to better support public officers’ health, Mr Chan said.
In a statement, the PSD said officers can use their FlexiGrow benefit flexibly, based on their own needs, such as courses for personal development and fitness programmes.
Asked who will be eligible for the benefit, a PSD spokesperson told ST: “We intend for most officers to benefit from FlexiGrow.”
PSD also said that the medical and dental benefits were enhanced after close consultation with the unions, and will apply to re-employed officers and statutory board employees as well.
With the benefits, the PSD hopes officers can proactively manage their health, in line with the national focus on preventive care, it said.
These come on top of the public service taking the lead to extend its officers’ retirement age to 64 years and re-employment to 69 from July 1, 2025, one year ahead of
the national schedule.
The move recognises that with higher life expectancy, many older officers may want to stay active, including being meaningfully engaged at work for longer, Mr Chan said in his speech.
Minister-in-charge of the Public Service Chan Chun Sing said that operating in an environment of constant change can be unsettling, even exhausting, for public officers. ST PHOTO: AZMI ATHNI
These and other benefits are “just hygiene factors”, which the public service intends to get right for its officers, he added. That said, the minister recognised that these hygiene factors alone “will not make (the public service) an attractive value proposition that can attract the best and most committed people to come and join (it)”.
Instead, it is the public service’s sense of mission, values and gumption that will inspire good people to join, he said.
These three factors are what the public service “cannot lose” if it wants to continue being successful in being “the pride of our nation and the envy of others”, he stressed.
Retaining a sense of mission involves never going on “auto-pilot maintenance mode” despite the public service’s accomplishments thus far, Mr Chan said, as he noted that foreign guests sometimes compliment Singapore by asking if they can borrow its public service for a year.
“Indeed, as every one of you know, every day brings new challenges to our public service in our generation. Every new challenge requires us to re-examine our assumptions and approach to overcome, and to transcend the challenges,” he said.
Pointing out that public officers had become familiar with 3Fs, namely, the “fragmenting global order”, the “fractious social order”, and the “fragile economic order”, Mr Chan said they need to start asking how they can turn the 3Fs into 4Cs – a “connected global order”, a “cohesive social order”, a “competitive economy” and a “confident people”.
For those in the foreign affairs, financial, defence and security pillars, this entails asking what are the ideas to bring like-minded countries and companies together to uphold existing rules and develop new ones to strengthen Singapore’s chances of survival and to thrive, said Mr Chan.
“We never sit back and accept the world as it is passively. But what can we do within our powers to work with the like-minded to shift the global order which is to Singapore’s favour,” he added.
And for those in the social sector, it would entail asking how they can lead by maintaining cohesion amid a more contested socio-political environment, a less trusting media environment and a public with higher and more diverse aspirations, he said.
Across the board, public officers should also think about how they can inspire Singaporeans and assure Singaporeans that everyone can have their place in society, to make contributions, regardless of one’s abilities, he said.
Reiterating that the public service’s mission is to build a thriving Singapore that provides hope and opportunities for all Singaporeans, Mr Chan said “build” refers to being action-oriented. This is not about being passive or reactive, neither is it to just preserve what has been achieved thus far, he added.
In adhering to this, public officers must take on the role of a builder, a hunter or a pioneer, he said.
This is one who is “always on the lookout for opportunities to score and create new value propositions, not only when we are forced by circumstances to do so”, Mr Chan added.
To not lose gumption is, among other things, to admit that Singapore is at risk of complacency, and that many others are working to overtake the country, he added.
Public officers should also have the gumption to engage other stakeholders when they do not have all the answers or capabilities themselves, he said.
Mr Chan, meanwhile, said it will become harder for public officers to jettison what has worked in the past.
Like many Fortune 500 companies – only 49 of which have consistently made the list in the last 70 years – success can be the albatross where Singapore risks seeking perfection to irrelevance, he said in illustrating this.
“If we do not check our blind spots and maintain our relevance, we risk falling into a downward spiral. And if we’re not careful, we will have our Xerox, Kodak or Nokia moment,” he said.
These businesses were once successful and pioneering, but are no longer Fortune 500 companies, he pointed out. They “should alert us to the dangers of complacency and how doing the right thing is often more important than just doing the same things well”, he said.
Mr Chan also said the success of the public service cannot be without the larger context of stability, partnership between the public service and political leadership.
In closing, he said the crux is not that Singapore has a perfect public service “which can get 100 marks in everything we do”.
“The crux of the public service is that we have officers who will get things right, even if the chips are down, and get the right things done, even if there are negative voices,” he said.
To do so, public officers must keep their ears close to the ground, while minding to never be “populist” or “sacrifice our long-term sustainability for short-term expediency”, Mr Chan said.
“It is a delicate but important balance – to govern responsively for the short term, and responsibly for the long term, so that Singapore and Singaporeans will be here and be able to thrive for evermore,” he said.
Public officers welcomed the new FlexiGrow benefit for civil servants and enhanced medical and dental benefits for all.
Mr Aaron Ong, a manager in workforce development at PSD, said it is heartening to know that the civil service considered feedback from officers in updating the benefits package. The 30-year-old, who has worked in the civil service for three years, said he will use the FlexiGrow benefit to try out wellness programmes or fitness classes, such as yoga.
He is also thinking of using it to pick up some non-fiction books that could help futureproof and spark innovation that will be useful in his career, he said.
Mr Muhammad Al-Fateh Mohamed Shafi, 31, a correctional unit officer with the Singapore Prison Service, said he is already given $700 annually for learning and personal development needs, which he has been using towards his gym membership.
If he gets another $500 under FlexiGrow, he intends to pick up basic counselling, he said, noting that the prison service has been moving towards rehabilitation.
A State Courts officer who wanted to be known only as Haikal said the enhanced medical and dental benefits will be helpful for officers with more dependants, as medical costs have risen over the years.
“Small things like these might not seem like much, but go a long way in making the public service more attractive,” said the 39-year-old.
