Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Manpower and Education Hawazi Daipi said that's because more people here are shouldering elder or child-care duties while managing work responsibilities.
He made the point at the annual Employer Alliance event on Wednesday morning, where a new research on work-life integration was released.
The study, commissioned by Employer Alliance and conducted in collaboration with Assoc Prof Paulin Tay Straughan, Deputy Head of the Dept of Sociology at National University of Singapore, identified barriers to a successful work-life integration.
42-year-old Dr Helen Chen is a mother of two.
She works part-time and has the flexibility to choose which days to schedule her meetings.
"I think when you have young children, it's always a challenge because a lot of their needs are unpredictable. When they fall sick, you can't tell when that will happen. So having an employer who is very supportive and mindful of the needs of the employee is very important," said Dr Chen, Senior Consultant and Head of Mental Wellness Service, KK Women's and Children's Hospital.
New research has revealed though that while there is government support for flexi-work, the take-up rate by organisations is low.
Statistics from the Ministry of Manpower 2010 show that only 35 per cent of businesses in Singapore offered at least one form of work-life arrangement to their staff, with part-time work as the most common option available.
The study said the implementation gap arises mainly from inconsistent messages of what is considered valued work, unclear prescriptions of expectations by management, middle management who fail to translate formal organisational expectations into practice, and a performance appraisal system which does not convey clear messages of valued work to employees.
Dr Straughan said: "It's because they don't have enough knowledge and understanding of flexibility. One main concern is not knowing how to monitor or supervise your employees whom you cannot see face to face. So face-work, we need to replace that, it's not the all-in answer."
She also said work-life integration will ensure greater productivity because a happy worker is a productive worker.
To fully embrace work-life integration, the research found that employers need to change their mindset of what an ideal worker is. For example, part-time workers are often seen as inferior or secondary to full time workers. And this is a perception that needs to be changed.
Professionalising part-time work is one way to start.
Assoc Prof Straughan said having a conducive environment for part-time workers will enable employers to tap on potential labour that is underutilised - mainly older adults and women with children.
On its part, the Employer Alliance plans to encourage HR firms to visibly promote part-time recruitment as well as design benefit schemes and appraisal tools that will act as an incentive to part-time workers.
- CNA/fa/ls
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