Toll on Public Service at Forefront of Fight against COVID-19 Pandemic and Measures to Ensure It Remains Competitive

17 Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan asked the Prime Minister in light of the Public Service being at the forefront of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and taking a toll on the workers in the Public Service (a) whether the Public Service is also seeing an increase in attrition; (b) what is being done to look after the health and welfare of workers in the Public Service; and (c) what is the Government doing to ensure that the compensation and benefits of workers in the Public Service remain competitive.

The Minister for Education (Mr Chan Chun Sing) (for the Prime Minister): Mr Speaker, Sir, the Public Service has seen an increase in attrition across the board. The resignation rate for the Management Executive Scheme, the largest generic scheme in the Civil Service, reached a 10-year peak of 9.9% in 2021 and the attrition has clearly picked up momentum in the last six months. Some specific segments, such as Info-communication Technology (ICT), are experiencing elevated competitive pressures in the face of talent shortages and facing resignation rates that are even higher.

There are various factors contributing to attrition from the Public Service, including pressures of the job, pay and opportunities for professional development and progression. In particular, over the past two years, public officers have had to face intense pressure, working tirelessly to sustain the fight against COVID-19. At times, they also have to deal with anxious and even demanding members of the public in the course of their COVID-19-related work. The shift to remote work has also blurred the line between work and life. There is a risk of an increase in attrition from the Public Service, as the economy recovers, and job offers from the private sector increase.

Amidst the high demands of the work, the Public Service will step up efforts to streamline processes and continue to provide clarity of direction in helping our officers relate their work and contributions to the core purpose of serving Singapore and Singaporeans. At the same time, the Service has also stepped up efforts to support and care for the health and mental well-being of public officers. We are conducting regular webinars on well-being-related topics, such as resilience, mindfulness, nutrition and physical exercise. We introduced a 24/7 counselling hotline as well as a "mindline at work", a digital platform to help public officers access mental health resources. We have also built up a community of over 900 Wellness Ambassadors from 80 agencies. These are public officers who have volunteered to be trained to provide basic emotional support to fellow colleagues and act as ambassadors for mental well-being.

Mr Speaker, Sir, the Public Service will review salaries and benefits of public officers and adjust them where necessary to keep pace with the market. These periodic adjustments help to enable the Public Service to attract and retain its fair share of talent so that we can continue to deliver a high quality of services for Singaporeans. In addition, we have made several moves to enhance the employee value proposition of a career in the Public Service, by expanding job rotations and attachments outside the public sector, to make work more interesting and fulfilling as officers get to experience and learn new things constantly.

Mr Speaker: Mr Patrick Tay.

Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan (Pioneer): Sir, I thank the Minister for his reply. I have two supplementary questions. The first supplementary question is whether any of our Ministries, Statutory Boards or any key essential services in the public sector is at a critical manning level, hearing about the attrition earlier.

Secondly, what is the baseline work arrangement for the Public Service that is, the Ministries or the Statutory Boards, to ensure that as we move into the endemic state and the new normal, officers continue to have an acceptable level of mental health and wellness?

Mr Chan Chun Sing: Mr Speaker, Sir, at this point in time, the general manning level of the Public Service is still healthy. But having said that, there are two areas of concern for me.

First, there might be some localised shortages, and we will have to redeploy our officers accordingly to serve the public and to maintain the standards of service we require. Thus far, we have been very fortunate that the Public Service officers have, in general, been able to be cross-deployed and help one another when the need arises. For example in the earlier reply to the Parliamentary Question (PQ), when MOH needed additional manpower to man the hotlines, we were able to mobilise resources from CPF and other volunteers from the Public Service in general, to be redeployed to help them on a temporary basis. So, we will continue to do this, and I would like to thank all the Public Service officers for stepping up to volunteer, to cover some of these gaps at the localised shortages.

But there is another area that I am concerned with, which is the longer-term impact, that is, our ability to make sure that we not only deliver the services for today, but we are also able to continue to improve our systems and processes for the future. In this particular area, the specific area of concern will be our ICT talent. Because in a lot of the ICT projects, we do need sufficient quantity and quality personnel in order to make sure that these projects are on track. Given the hot market in the private sector for ICT talent, it is, indeed, a big challenge for us to get our fair share of talent. Of course, we understand that in the Public Service, we do not compete just on the basis of pay, but we also compete on the basis of offering our people exciting and meaningful work. So, we will continue to work on this.

But, in general, to answer Mr Patrick Tay's first question, we are still able to hold up the system by redeploying and cross-deploying officers, as needed, to maintain the current level of service. But we must pay attention to the forward-looking services that we want to put in place to serve Singapore and Singaporeans better in time to come.

To Mr Patrick Tay's second question, there is not exactly a new baseline arrangement because the spectrum of Public Service officers' duties vary quite a lot. Quite a lot of the Public Service officers, including those in the Education Service, will not be able to have work-from-home arrangements because they do need to be present to man their stations. But having said that, for the rest of the Public Service who are able to work from home, then we will try to lock in some of these gains, whereby, they have more flexible work arrangements transiting between working from home and working at their respective stations, depending on the demands of the job situation at this point in time, and, of course, depending on the national posture for our plans to fight against COVID-19.

So, what the Public Service wants to do is to make sure that we lock in some of the gains that we have been able to achieve through the COVID-19 arrangement and allow greater and more flexible work arrangements for our people to the extent possible. But having said that, we all know that quite a large proportion of the Public Service officers are in jobs that are frontline, public-facing, and it will not be very possible for these jobs to have work-from-home arrangements. So, they will have to take turns, depending on their rotation cycles, to see whether they can enjoy some of these flexibilities that we also hope to give our public officers.

Mr Speaker: Mr Pritam Singh.

Mr Pritam Singh (Aljunied): I would like to thank the Minister for his reply. Just to clarify with the Minister. The Minister shared that the haemorrhage in 2021 with respect to Public Service officers on the MX scheme of service was 9.9%. Can I just confirm, Minister, is this figure similar for Public Service officers in the ICT sector or is the percentage for that unique sector far higher than the 9.9% that Minister shared?

My second question pertains to the ICT sector. We all know, on the basis of what has happened over the last few years with regard to cybersecurity weaknesses and digitalisation being an important prong for the Government, that the need for ICT talent would be either increasing or certainly going to be a far, far more important aspect of the Public Service than it ever has been. Coming back to my question, the Minister has shared that the demand in the private sector for ICT talent is very hot. Indeed, that is true. The salaries are very high. What strategies does the Government have in mind to, in the Minister's words, attract the public sector's fair share of ICT talent, going forward?

Mr Chan Chun Sing: Mr Speaker, Sir, the first answer to Mr Pritam Singh's question is, the attrition is higher in the ICT sector than the general 9.9% that I have mentioned. So, ICT sector is higher.

On the second part, it is an important question because in meeting our ICT needs for the Government as a whole, we do apply a multi-pronged approach. One, is, of course, we try to recruit our fair share of talent from the open market. That, we will continue to do. And that, we have to make sure that our projects, our work, they are all meaningful and fulfilling for the people who come in, over and above a competitive pay. So, hiring from outside is one.

Second, growing our own timber is another strategy that we adopt. When we say we grow our own timber, we talk about helping our people to upgrade their baseline ICT skills so that more people will be able to take on some of the tasks that are required in the overall public sector. Retraining some of our own people are also possibilities that we are embarking on. So, there is external recruitment, there is also growing our own timber.

The third prong that we use to meet our own ICT needs is also to rationalise the way we demand ICT manpower. For example, to the extent that we can aggregate projects of a similar nature, we will be able to do that because it helps us to save cost and reduce the demand on the ICT manpower. Of course, over the longer term, it also helps us to have a much more integrated Public Service ICT system.

So, through these various multi-pronged strategies, we hope to have a holistic arrangement to meet the ICT needs of our Public Service going forward.