Three SMEs were recently honoured by the Ministry of Manpower and the Tripartite Committee on Work-Life Strategy for their efforts in implementing effective work-life strategies in their workplace. Lee Xieli speaks to the honourees on the challenges they face being small.
Patrick Ang, Executive committee partner, Rajah & Tann
The biggest intangible challenge we face in the legal profession is that a lot of time is needed for lawyers to do their work. This is not a 9 to 5 job, so how do we satisfy our clients’ needs and deliver quality work which inadvertently requires a lot of time, and yet tell employees, “Ok never mind, you can take time off”?
Thus, we have to implement work-life practices while our 550 employees are at work. We have allocated 5,000 sq feet of space to a café cum recreational area even though the office rentals are high in Raffles place – compared to MNCs located in industrial areas. The café serves breakfast everyday and lunch twice a week for free. There is a constant supply of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream to various refreshments throughout the day. We have a pool table, foosball, Xbox, Nintendo Wii and a TV.
We were one of the first few law firms to go on a five-day work week and casual Fridays. We have also subsidised S$60 a month for gym membership. For employees who are mothers, we have nursing rooms, sick bays and massage chairs. We do not have a childcare facility as that is just too expensive. However, we negotiate discounts with childcare centres situated nearby. We always try to do the next available best thing, even if we cannot compete with the resources.
We also have a friendly culture that is prevalent in the firm, where we address each other by our first names. It relieves a lot of the pressure and creates an open-door policy where people can walk into my managing partner’s office. We also empower our department heads in terms of work flexibility. The department or the team head gets to decide if the workload is manageable, and results are not compromised when someone has to take a leave.
Yeow Kian Seng, Managing director, Lucky Joint Construction
The trade and telecommunication network construction is an extreme competitive industry, unlike general construction where it is easier to source for workers. Knowing this, Lucky Joint annually caters a substantial amount of money for work-life practices which benefit the employees. We try to make everyone happy as such initiatives are win-win in the long term.
It hasn’t been tough to introduce work-life balance in the company despite the considerable lesser amount of resources we have compared to MNCs. We constantly try to improve, modify and create a better working environment for all employees. We hand out bursaries between S$200 to S$800 to employees whose children are studying in Singapore, regardless of their nationalities.
Employees are allowed to use any of the company’s 30 vehicles, plus the company pleasure craft, for travelling to and from work or for family outings. Expenses like road taxes, fuel, repair and maintenance are paid for. We also advance salaries for employees in financial difficulties.
Family gatherings are also a big part of our work-life programme. During family days and Chinese New Year festivities, we would either rent chalets or have a gala dinner for our employees and their families. We also give out long service awards to recognise our staff’s efforts during such events.
Helen Lim-Yang, CEO, OTi Consulting
Most SMEs are faced with time and resources challenges when it comes to implementing work-life balance. Unlike in larger organisations where a role is more well-defined, many employees in SMEs wear multiple hats and shoulder different roles across functions.
Hence, SMEs worry about allowing flexible work arrangements for even one person as several functions in the company will be affected. However, SMEs can introduce work-life balance on a small scale such as piloting with one employee first. It could be as simple as scheduling once a month for the employee to work from home. Employees really appreciate the company more when they can take little bits of breather with the flexibility to manage their time.
In 1999, I was the first key staff member to pilot the work-life practices. I had to work extra hard as it was my responsibility to prove that flextime was not detrimental to the business bottomline. We have also changed our childcare leave to family care leave so it benefits employees without children or who are single. Employees can also use their medical and dental benefits to claim contact lenses expenses or other similar welfare needs.
Likewise, employees have to be accountable if they want to have flextime as SMEs are unable to extend work-life practices to too many people due to constraints in resources. Employees need to have a good track record before they can gain the trust of their management and co-workers. At the end of day, the employee meeds to deliver and performance shouldn’t be compromised. When, where and how work gets done is up to the individual.
