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<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>'Retrench first, hire later' not way to go
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Labour chief urges bosses to 'reskill, upskill and multi-skill' existing workers instead </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Goh Chin Lian
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->IN A direct appeal to bosses yesterday, labour chief Lim Swee Say urged them to reject the common practice of retrenching workers in a downturn and hiring new ones in an upturn.
It is especially important to make the change now as Singapore's economy becomes more knowledge-based.
Otherwise, they will bring harm to their companies as well as the economy, he said.
Mr Lim made his plea at a human resource conference yesterday, amid latest official figures showing a jump in retrenchments in the first three months of this year and his warning of a second wave of layoffs.
Speaking to more than 2,000 HR professionals, he said:
'At the company level, you are going to lose a lot of experience, a lot of skill and, more importantly, a lot of time, because it takes time to hire new workers, to retrain new workers.
'And if you are in a knowledge-based economy, the time needed to retrain new entrants will be much longer compared to a labour-intensive operation.
'At the economy level, this will lead to a massive relocation of workforce and, at the national level, it could lead to a rise in structural unemployment.'
The way to go is 'reskilling, upskilling and multi-skilling' existing workers, said Mr Lim, who is secretary-general of the National Trades Union Congress.
HR professionals play a crucial part in leading it, he said in his keynote address at the two-day HR Summit 09, which opened yesterday.
They are the 'vital link' between management and unions, and he urged those present to give priority to training, especially for their less-skilled workers.
Repeatedly, he encouraged them to tap on the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (Spur), a government-sponsored scheme that subsidises workers' training.
HR professionals later told The Straits Times that some bosses resort to the retrench-and-hire practice because they are more bottom-line driven than people-centred.
They 'look purely at the numbers as they have to show an improvement in quarterly results,' said Mr Desmond Wong, who has 25 years' experience in human resources.
This attitude tends to be more prevalent in multinational companies where the chief executive officer is based in another country, than in small and medium-sized enterprises in Singapore, said Mr Wong, group HR manager for local health-care and leisure company Haw Par Corporation.
Another reason HR professionals cited is that bosses may want to remove laggards and rejuvenate the organisation with new blood.
In his address, Mr Lim recounted his conversation with the management of three companies.
One, a leading hotel, expected the integrated resorts to compete for talent and was thinking of ways to keep staff and upgrade their skills.
Another, a manufacturing company, wanted to retain its skilled workers to upgrade its production processes.
The third, an international bank, was looking at recruiting new blood to nurture leaders for the future.
Said Mr Lim: 'They all face the same challenge: on the one hand, how to be cheaper to survive today; on the other hand, how to be better to grow tomorrow.'
But the Government is lending them a hand to achieve both at the same time, he said, citing the $20.5 billion Resilience Package, which includes Spur and the Jobs Credit scheme that subsidises employers' wage bill for local workers. [email protected]
<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>'Retrench first, hire later' not way to go
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Labour chief urges bosses to 'reskill, upskill and multi-skill' existing workers instead </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Goh Chin Lian
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->IN A direct appeal to bosses yesterday, labour chief Lim Swee Say urged them to reject the common practice of retrenching workers in a downturn and hiring new ones in an upturn.
It is especially important to make the change now as Singapore's economy becomes more knowledge-based.
Otherwise, they will bring harm to their companies as well as the economy, he said.
Mr Lim made his plea at a human resource conference yesterday, amid latest official figures showing a jump in retrenchments in the first three months of this year and his warning of a second wave of layoffs.
Speaking to more than 2,000 HR professionals, he said:
'At the company level, you are going to lose a lot of experience, a lot of skill and, more importantly, a lot of time, because it takes time to hire new workers, to retrain new workers.
'And if you are in a knowledge-based economy, the time needed to retrain new entrants will be much longer compared to a labour-intensive operation.
'At the economy level, this will lead to a massive relocation of workforce and, at the national level, it could lead to a rise in structural unemployment.'
The way to go is 'reskilling, upskilling and multi-skilling' existing workers, said Mr Lim, who is secretary-general of the National Trades Union Congress.
HR professionals play a crucial part in leading it, he said in his keynote address at the two-day HR Summit 09, which opened yesterday.
They are the 'vital link' between management and unions, and he urged those present to give priority to training, especially for their less-skilled workers.
Repeatedly, he encouraged them to tap on the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (Spur), a government-sponsored scheme that subsidises workers' training.
HR professionals later told The Straits Times that some bosses resort to the retrench-and-hire practice because they are more bottom-line driven than people-centred.
They 'look purely at the numbers as they have to show an improvement in quarterly results,' said Mr Desmond Wong, who has 25 years' experience in human resources.
This attitude tends to be more prevalent in multinational companies where the chief executive officer is based in another country, than in small and medium-sized enterprises in Singapore, said Mr Wong, group HR manager for local health-care and leisure company Haw Par Corporation.
Another reason HR professionals cited is that bosses may want to remove laggards and rejuvenate the organisation with new blood.
In his address, Mr Lim recounted his conversation with the management of three companies.
One, a leading hotel, expected the integrated resorts to compete for talent and was thinking of ways to keep staff and upgrade their skills.
Another, a manufacturing company, wanted to retain its skilled workers to upgrade its production processes.
The third, an international bank, was looking at recruiting new blood to nurture leaders for the future.
Said Mr Lim: 'They all face the same challenge: on the one hand, how to be cheaper to survive today; on the other hand, how to be better to grow tomorrow.'
But the Government is lending them a hand to achieve both at the same time, he said, citing the $20.5 billion Resilience Package, which includes Spur and the Jobs Credit scheme that subsidises employers' wage bill for local workers. [email protected]
