Average Utilisation Rate of Flexible Work Arrangements by Employees in Last Three Years
Ministry of ManpowerSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns the average utilization rate of flexible work arrangements (FWAs) as raised by Ms Anthea Ong, broken down by Work-Life Grant (WLG) status, FWA type, gender, and age. Minister for Manpower Josephine Teo explained that utilization rates are not collected as they do not indicate actual need, emphasizing instead that FWA accessibility for those requiring it rose to over 80% in 2018. She noted that accessibility is similar across demographics and that WLG disbursements require companies to adopt the Tripartite Standard on FWAs, which includes informing employees about available options and application outcomes. Although the Ministry does not track utilization for all employees within a firm, beneficiary companies must engage staff on alternatives if their specific FWA requests cannot be granted. To strengthen support for these arrangements, the budget for the enhanced WLG was recently increased from $30 million to $100 million to further encourage employers to offer flexible work options.
Transcript
26 Ms Anthea Ong asked the Minister for Manpower in each of the last three years, what is the average utilisation rate of flexible work arrangements (FWAs) by employees broken down by (i) whether their employer receives the Work-Life Grant and (ii) type of FWA utilised disaggregated by gender and age.
Mrs Josephine Teo: We do not collect utilisation rate of Flexible Work Arrangements (FWAs) because it does not show if employees require more FWAs or not. A low FWA utilisation rate could be due to employees not requiring FWAs at the point in time. A more useful indicator is the accessibility of FWAs for employees who need it. Among employees aged 25 to 64 who required FWAs in 2018, more than eight in 10 had access to the FWA that they needed, an increase from seven in 10 in 2016.1 The percentage is broadly similar across age and gender.
The Work-Life Grant (WLG) is only disbursed to companies after their employees have regularly utilised the FWAs. The amount disbursed depends on the number of employees who utilised the FWAs, up to $105,000 per company. We do not track the utilisation of FWAs by all employees in each company. However, as part of the WLG conditions, every beneficiary company must adopt the Tripartite Standard on FWAs, which includes informing all their employees on the types of FWAs offered and outcomes of their applications, and engaging them on alternatives if their requests cannot be granted. To provide greater support to companies to implement FWAs, the budget for the enhanced WLG was recently increased to $100 million, up from $30 million. We strongly encourage employers to tap on the grant to offer FWAs to their employees.