Preparing Singapore public sector officers for long careers

For employers, one of the biggest struggles in talent management was how to foster the growth and development of their staff.  

While learning opportunities and development helps employees gain valuable skills, experience, and connections, it also paradoxically increases the risk of losing those same employees who now have enhanced career prospects and employability. 

Singapore’s Public Service Division (PSD)’s Deputy Chief HR Officer (Deputy CHRO) and Director (Business Partnerships, Dawn Lee Sze Ern acknowledged this dilemma and shared about her initial struggle in fulfilling her role in developing talent. 

“When our officers feel that they are growing with you, that they are adding value to their own careers by being with you, they're more likely to stay. 

“This was a struggle for me at the beginning [of my role] because I couldn't understand why we were helping officers to build career capital so they could write better resumes and then leave us,” she said.  

Lee was sharing about the PSD’s leadership development strategy and policy direction to prepare its workforce for the future at GovInsider’s recent Festival of Innovation event.  

Across 16 ministries and more than 50 statutory boards, PSD employs over 154,000 officers representing 6.3 per cent of the Resident Labour Force – making the public sector the nation’s largest employer. 

"We face major headwinds ahead," said Lee, citing rising geopolitical tensions and greater economic and technological fragmentation as these headwinds. 

"Domestically, we also see a need to become more competitive, and we see a lot of proliferation of emerging technologies," she added. 

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Competence and learning  

To address changing workforce needs, Lee highlighted that PSD was focusing on aligning employee skills to meet organisational needs. 

In her presentation, she shared PSD’s immediate projects and future plans on how the agency prepares its workforce. 

Central to this alignment was a competency-based system that defines core and functional skills for every job in the civil service.  

Lee explained that in 2021, the PSD refreshed its whole set of core competencies, rolling out functional competencies for every single job in the civil service.

This exercise enabled transparency and empowerment as staff knew exactly what functional competencies were needed for job mobility. 

“People ask us why we choose to focus on competencies? Why not experience, length of service, or personality traits? Our view is that behaviours are best suited for targeted intervention. They're extrinsic that can be learned, trained, and easily assessed,” she said. 

Experiential training represented a large focus of employee development, according to Lee, particularly as that avenue tends to see individuals grow their competencies the most, by 70 per cent. 

Following a ‘70-20-10' rule (70 per cent on-the-job experience, 20 per cent peer learning, and 10 per cent formal training), Singapore’s public service develops a range of programmes for public officers to experience diverse and different opportunities. 

These programmes include short-term immersions and longer-term structure job rotations lasting up to two years. 

The medium-term talent attachment programme (TAP), for instance, offered public officers placement in the private sector for periods of six to 18 months, for individuals to leverage external perspective and new capabilities not usually found in their agency. 

Such opportunities were facilitated by platforms such as the One Talent Gateway that helped officers build up their competency profile to look for jobs at different competency profiles and chart their growth. 

Career fitness and transitions 

Beyond technological shifts, talent strategies in the public sector would also need to be adapted to reflect societal and demographic changes, she said. 

With an ageing population, Lee highlighted that Singapore how societal expectations were evolving. 

"Some of us are supposed to live to 100 years or more. The idea is that they need to be able to work longer,” she said, highlighting how Singapore’s public service was helping its officers prepare for long careers.  

The Career Fitness Programme, launched in 2022, was similar to a personal trainer for one's career, offering support for employees to drive their own career development through upskilling and reskilling, that are supported by about 400 career coaches available to all officers, said Lee. 

Under the Work Attachment Programme, three-to-six-month work trials within or outside the public service further provide alternative pathways for officers that may not fit with their current roles. 

According to Lee, flexibility is another tenet in today’s workplace, extending across flexible working schedules, arrangements, pathways, and responsibilities, to meet changing aspirations and needs across life stages. 

Similarly, purpose and well-being were key components that enhance an employee’s experience beyond the provided job scopes.  
 
Lee highlighted the PSD’s success in its engagement for these components including its Public Service for Good (PSFG) movement and Well-being Ambassadors which has seen encouraging volunteer participation.  

“For us [PSD], it's about the people and about making impact. To be purposeful and then push the boundaries in terms of possibilities and what can be done,” Lee concluded. 

You can watch Lee’s full presentation on-demand here.