MOM and SNEF to work with NTUC, HR community, and employers to implement recommendations by Alliance for Action on Widening Access to Talent

29 October 2024

On 10 October 2024, the Ministry of Manpower (“MOM”) announced that MOM and the Singapore National Employers Federation (“SNEF”) will work with the National Trades Union Congress (“NTUC”), trade associations and chambers (“TACs”), the human resource (“HR”) community, and employers to implement the eight recommendations by the Alliance for Action (“AfA”) on Widening Access to Talent. This was announced by Senior Minister of State for Manpower, Zaqy Mohamad, at the People Behind People Forum 2024. 

The AfA on Widening Access to Talent was formed in January 2024 to develop industry-led solutions to increase talent competitiveness amid rising manpower constraints due to an ageing resident workforce. The AfA comprises representatives from various sectors including the information and communications technology (ICT), manufacturing, and retail sectors. 

Recommendations by the AfA 

The AfA members have identified four key areas that will support employers to widen their access to talent notwithstanding growing manpower constraints. Under these four key areas, the AfA has made eight recommendations as set out in the table below.

4 Focus Areas

8 Recommendations

Leverage transferable expertise from adjacent talent pools through skills-first hiring practices

1. Encourage adoption of a national skills taxonomy and develop a database of verified skills of the workforce to enable skills-first hiring

2. Develop sector or job-specific standardised assessment tests for skills-heavy jobs to help employers assess transferable skills of candidates from different backgrounds

Improve workforce agility and retention through skills-first workforce development to promote internal mobility

3. Develop playbooks and identify off-the-shelf HR tech solutions to guide and simplify implementation of internal marketplace solutions

4. Build a “talent co-development” model where employers collaborate to aggregate talent development opportunities

5. Enable employers to provide career guidance and planning to their workers for career and skills development

Increase job accessibility for workforce segments with diverse needs through job redesign

6. Develop structured programmes as a means to attract students, seniors, and stay-at-home mothers to take up hard-to-fill jobs

Uplift HR capabilities to enable skills-first practices and support small and medium-sized enterprises (“SMEs”) to access HR services

7. Increase access of SMEs to HR advisory and consultancy services to improve employers’ skills-first hiring and workforce development capabilities

8. Stronger industry push for HR to level up through certification from the Institute for Human Resource Professionals, which provides employers with access to external support and resources from the certified HR community

(Source: AfA Final Report 2024) 

MOM and SNEF support all eight recommendations and urge all employers to adopt skills-first hiring and workforce development practices to increase talent competitiveness amidst slowing resident workforce growth. 

Reference materials

The following materials are available on the MOM website www.mom.gov.sg: