'When a company transforms, its workers should have the chance to transform with it,' Wong says
Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has called on companies to place workforce development at the centre of their transformation plans rather than treating it as a secondary concern left to HR managers.
Speaking at the launch of the SkillsFuture Festival, Wong acknowledged that businesses understand the need to stay competitive through new technology and improved processes, and that the government offers many schemes to support that journey. But he said a persistent problem remained.
"Far too often, the workforce dimension comes later — it is treated as a human resource matter to be dealt with by the HR manager after the business decisions have already been made," Wong said.
"And that is far too late."
Wong urged business leaders to consider the people dimension simultaneously with operational and strategic change, asking three questions he said could not be deferred: how jobs will change, what new skills will be needed, and how existing workers can be equipped to take on new and better roles.
"These questions cannot be an afterthought," he said. "Our workers cannot be an afterthought in business transformation. When a company transforms, its workers should have the chance to transform with it."
The prime minister said the government's aim was for business competitiveness and worker benefit to advance together.
"We want businesses to be more productive and competitive. But we also want workers to benefit — through better skills, better jobs, and better prospects," he said.
One agency, one portal
To support this, Wong announced that the newly formed Skills and Workforce Development Agency (SWDA) would work to bring enterprise and workforce grants closer together, encouraging companies to pursue business transformation and workforce development simultaneously rather than sequentially.
He urged employers not to approach the government solely for enterprise grants, but to consider workforce support at the same time.
"We would like to see you do both at the same time, so that companies can transform your operations and improve and strengthen your workforce at the same time," Wong said.
The SWDA, launched earlier this year, merged the functions previously split between SkillsFuture Singapore and Workforce Singapore.
Wong said the rationale for consolidating the two agencies was that training, jobs, and business transformation could no longer be treated as separate issues in an environment where technology was advancing rapidly and skills were becoming obsolete faster.
The SkillsFuture Festival also saw the launch of a refreshed SkillsFuture Portal and a new one-stop service centre called Connect by SWDA, which will offer career guidance, learning support, and employment assistance under one roof.
