Good morning, management and union representatives, parents and children,

1. I am very pleased to be here this morning to launch this initiative, Little Ones @ Work, by the NTUC Women’s Development Secretariat together with our partners, DBS Bank and DBS Staff Union.

2. There are about 400 children and their parents taking part in this morning’s Little Ones @ Work programme in DBS making it one of the largest turnout for a single employer. This is indeed very encouraging and I want to congratulate both DBS and DBSSU for this strong collaboration.

3. We did a pilot run of the Little Ones @ Work last year involving three companies and about 200 children. It was very well received so we decided to have a bigger launch this year. To date, a total of 23 companies have organized or will be organizing the Little Ones @ Work programme covering about 1200 children and their parents. Concerns over H1N1 has affected the implementation of this programme a little bit as a few companies had actually indicated that they wanted to come on board but decided to postpone it due to concerns over the spread of the virus.

4. The companies and their unions that have participated in this programme cover both the public and private sectors and cut across all sectors of the economy. They include companies like City Gas, Keppel Logistics, Tetra Pak, Bank of America, StatsChipac, Central CDC and the NTUC Club.

5. The purpose of this programme is to help managers and co-workers identify with the children and the employees as parents. Often, we see people in only one role in the workplace, that is, as workers or in economic terms, as factors of production. The human face is missing. We forget that people have multiple roles. They do not cease becoming parents when they go to work. They cannot automatically switch off the concerns that they have in their parenting responsibilities, be it over a sick child or attending an evening concert that their child is performing. So, helping people to manage their family commitments and give them peace of mind is an important strategy in enhancing efficiency and productivity. People can simply focus better at work. That is the reason why many big companies, particularly in the US, have effective work life balance programmes. They know that it is good for business and their bottom line. Indeed, many studies have shown that good work life balance programmes enhances the bottom line.

6. This Little Ones @ Work programme is part of NTUC WDS’s efforts to promote work life balance at the workplace and is one out of several strategies that are available to companies wanting to assist their workers to live balanced lives. Dual career or two earner families are increasing in Singapore. Couples are now spending more time at work or are increasingly work orientated; and have limited time for relaxation and leisure together. This situation worsens during a recession because there is a greater sense of job insecurity and people therefore feel compelled to work longer in the hope that if there is a retrenchment they will not be targeted. This morning’s report in the ST titled “Hard Times, longer hours” proves this point. It cited the results of a new global survey released yesterday by recruitment agency Robert Walters. It shows that people are working harder than before clocking up to 10 hours a week more than they were before. We all know that such unbalanced lives can lead to stress and depression, adverse effects on children, and marriage breakdowns and divorce.

7. Hence, programmes such as our Little Ones @ Work are as much a response to employers’ need to attract and retain valued employees who are getting increasingly frustrated that they are not able to fulfill their roles as parents meaningfully as well as one of the ways in which companies contribute to corporate social responsibility. There is no way that companies can build sustainable businesses when there is a huge staff turnover or when staff are not able to put in 100 per cent of their attention because their family commitments are neglected.

8. Big and established companies like DBS do have a special responsibility by leading the way for other companies. We have been running many work life balance programmes and we know that the key success factors in implementing such programmes are senior management commitment, clear guidelines, good communication and allocation of resources. Obviously, all these ingredients are found in DBS management support for this programme.

9. Although work life balance programmes have been around for some time now and we have made some progress, we still have some way to go compared to many developed countries. While we may not find all aspects of the Scandinavian model relevant to us because of their high reliance on laws to implement these programmes and heavy taxes to finance them, we must admit that as a society the Scandinavians have very clearly defined the outcomes they want to achieve and are very focused in their implementation. They believe in a sustainable development model where both economic and social goals develop in tandem; where people can live balanced lives and the whole society therefore supports effective work life initiatives. I hope to see even more companies adopting such programmes in Singapore, particularly our SMEs where progress has been a lot slower.

With this, I now launch this programme. Thank you once again everyone and children please ask a lot of questions when you see your mum and dads workplace. Thank you.

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