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I am very happy to join you today to recognise the winners of the Family Friendly Firm Award for their efforts to implement innovative pro-family practices for their employees.

Family friendly practices are becoming increasingly relevant to firms. In the New Economy driven by technology and globalisation, more and more businesses are having to function 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They have to respond faster to customer needs and grapple with shortening product lifecycles.

This has resulted in impressive productivity gains, but also greater pressure on workers to perform. Workers have to put in longer hours, work faster, keep abreast of massive amounts of information, learn new skills and upgrade continuously to remain relevant. Work becomes all consuming, with little or no time for personal or family lives. In developed countries, family units are coming under increasing stress. They are experiencing more divorces, more children born out of wedlock, and less emphasis on traditional family formation.

In Singapore too, work pressures are growing more intense, because we are part of the globalised economy. Fortunately so far, we have avoided the worst side-effects of these pressures. Family units in Singapore remain generally strong. But we cannot assume that this happy situation can continue by itself. We need to pay close attention to this issue.

We have to manage the impact of the increasing pace and volume of work on our personal and family lives, and strike a harmonious balance between work and family. Our lives cannot revolve solely around work. We are human beings with emotional needs, a large part of which is met by the family. The family fills crucial aspects of our lives which friends and office colleagues cannot. It is our emotional raft, providing stability and support in difficult times. Watching our children grow and mature is a source of immense joy and fulfilment. Our pains become a little more bearable, and our celebrations are made a little sweeter when we share them with our families.

In addition, the health of the family as an institution is critical to the stability of the society as a whole. Strong and stable families are the basic building blocks of society. A good family will nurture and inculcate positive values in the children, who are more likely to grow up to be responsible citizens.

Finding that balance between work and family, however, involves making choices and accepting trade-offs, especially for women. When a person puts all his energies towards pursuing his career, he is sacrificing time that could be spent with his family. If he puts more emphasis on the family, he may be forgoing career advancement and some monetary rewards. Unfortunately, often putting family first seems to involve the bigger penalty, perhaps because career rewards are more immediate and tangible. The joys of family life are less so and the costs of neglect felt only much later.

Where Singaporeans ultimately place their priorities and how they make the trade-offs are personal decisions. But the public and private sectors can help Singaporeans place more emphasis on the family, while accommodating the demands of work. We should create an environment that makes it easier for Singaporeans to raise a family.

The Government will certainly do its part. We will provide the infrastructural support, such as child care and a family friendly physical environment in housing estates.

The civil service is leading the way by adopting family friendly measures at the work place. It already has measures to help working mothers in the civil service. In addition, the civil service recently announced measures like allowing telecommuting, where practical, as an alternative working arrangement, particularly for parents with young children; and flexi-time work arrangements, as long as there is no loss of productivity or lapse in service standards to the public.

To help make companies more aware of the importance of family friendly practices, the Ministry of Community Development and Sports has set up a Work-Life Unit. The Unit will promote family friendly work practices through seminars and training programmes, and will provide consultancy to enlightened companies that recognise the need to act. It will work closely with the private sector, the Ministry of Manpower, SNEF and NTUC to kick-start this initiative.

Private sector companies also have a role in promoting and embracing family friendly, more flexible working arrangements. These need not compromise business performance. In fact, experience has shown that well-designed and effectively implemented family friendly policies strengthen businesses. They boost productivity and lower costs, by improving retention, reducing absenteeism, and enhancing worker commitment.

In the current business environment, talent commands a high premium. Companies compete fiercely to attract and retain the best people. In this talent war, innovative family friendly practices can be a useful strategic weapon. US companies have moved quickly in this area. In Singapore, companies are just beginning to introduce family friendly practices. We must push on further, to be competitive in attracting and retaining talent.

Some organisations in Singapore have already started, and have achieved promising results. IBM Singapore, for example, implemented telecommuting for its marketing and sales staff in 1996. It found that customer response became speedier, and the company enjoyed substantial savings on office rentals and furniture. Telecommuting also benefited the employees who cut down on travelling time and achieved a better work-family balance. Changi General Hospital cut its staff turnover rate by half (from 27% in 1997 to 13% in 1998) after it put in place flexi-time and part-time work practices for its male and female staff, and other family-related benefits.

I am thus glad that the Singapore National Employers Federation has set up an "Alliance of Employers" to study work-family issues that confront employers and employees, recommend family friendly practices for the work place, and provide feedback to SNEF on issues that affect employer response to the whole subject of work and the family. The Alliance will also hold regular dialogues with agencies like MCDS, MOM, and NTUC to share best practices, facilitate implementation of pro-family practices at the work place, and monitor the progress.

The Family Friendly Firm Award competition, jointly organised by MCDS, MOM, SNEF and NTUC, is another worthwhile initiative. It will encourage Singapore companies to introduce and promote pro-family practices by giving recognition to family friendly companies. 344 firms participated in the competition this year, out of which 9 have emerged as winners, while another 6 will receive certificates of merit. I congratulate all of you.

Every Singaporean will want a balance in his or her life between work and family. Each individual will have to take stock and decide on the correct balance for himself. The Government and employers will assist him to achieve such a balance. With your support, I am confident that we can promote family friendly practices in the work place throughout Singapore.

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