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SINGAPORE : More small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore have been recognised for implementing work-life strategies.
Thirteen companies were given the biennial Work-Life Excellence Award on Friday evening, compared to just eight such companies two years ago.
The number who applied for the award this year had jumped 50 per cent compared to 2008. Seventy per cent were first-time applicants.
Speaking at the award presentation ceremony, Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong said the increase is an encouraging sign that more SMEs are adopting and benefiting from work-life initiatives.
He also urged managers to nurture an open work culture to complement the initiatives.
Mr Gan added that work-life practices and flexible work arrangements would not work without trust and ownership.
He said: "For example, if managers need the assurance of physically seeing their staff working at their desk instead of trusting them to work from home, employees will not feel comfortable taking up work-life programmes.
"On their part, employees must take responsibility for their performance when they are entrusted with such flexibility."
One award recipient, managing partner of consulting firm OTi-SDC, Tan Tat Jin, works from home regularly and is showing the way for his staff.
He allows them to manage their schedules, with some working only two to three days a week.
The firm's management approves emergency family-care leave with no questions asked. The employees do not even need to submit medical leave certificates when they see the doctor.
Mr Tan believes it is important to trust one another and be flexible.
He said: "Do you manage the output or the results that they contribute, or do you manage the process, meaning the work routine, such as what time you report to work and what time do you go home?
"We believe strongly that we really have to manage the people by their contributions, rather than just by the work structure."
The Al-Istighfar Mosque also operates on work-life integration policies.
For example, it allows its 44 staff to bring their children who are below 12 years old to work.
As a small organisation, it can be nimble and implement work-life balance programmes effectively.
Abdul Hakeem Mohd Ismail, secretary of the Al-Istighfar Mosque Management Board said: "We have a personal knowledge of every one of them, each of their needs, because of that we are able to meet, whatever their peculiar situations in which they are in.
"And then we balance this with whatever task that they have to perform in the mosque with their own personal needs."
As a result of its work-life harmony programme, the mosque has been able to boost the morale and loyalty of its workers.
- CNA/al
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