– The playbook focuses on enhancing workforce agility and retention through skills-first workforce development and career mobility within firms.

– It is the first of key resources rollout to help enterprises adopt job redesign through a structured approach under the Job Redesign Centre of Excellence (JRCoE), which was launched on 15 November 2023 in collaboration with Workforce Singapore.

– The playbook is also one of the immediate actionable steps taken under the Alliance for Action (AfA) on Widening Access to Talent initiative.

10 October 2024 – The Institute for Human Resource Professionals (IHRP) announced the launch of the Job Redesign (JR) Playbook for Human Resources (HR) at its annual flagship event – People Behind People Forum 2024. This initiative is part of a rollout of key resources designed to guide enterprises in adopting job redesign through a guided, step-by-step approach. The playbook is spearheaded by the Job Redesign Centre of Excellence (JRCoE), which was launched on 15 November 2023 in collaboration with Workforce Singapore.

Intensifying global headwinds, changing workforce demographics, an ageing workforce, digitalisation and sustainability goals are driving the need for employees to develop new skills to remain relevant. Introducing a six-step job redesign framework (REVAMP) on HR roles, the playbook will help businesses in Singapore to continually scale and build new capabilities in the HR function, thereby developing a highly adaptable workforce.

Job Redesign As Essential Tool In HR’s Strategy

The JR Playbook for HR is one of the immediate actionable steps taken under the Alliance for Action (AfA) on Widening Access to Talent initiative. By expanding access to adjacent talent pools and emphasising skills-first hiring practices, the AfA aims to create scalable solutions to address Singapore’s ageing yet highly educated workforce.

HR serves as a catalyst in securing leadership buy-in and driving skills-first practices to widen access to talent. The JR Playbook for HR provides companies, particularly SMEs with essential resources to align business priorities with progressive hiring and workforce strategies. The playbook underwent validation during a focused session that gathered over 50 HR professionals from 17 different sectors for comprehensive feedback.

Job Redesign As Solution To Ease Talent Crunch

Aon’s 2023 Global Risk Management Survey found ‘failure to attract or retain talent’ the fourth biggest risk facing organisations globally[1].HR can play a more strategic function to support businesses in their talent management through job redesign.

Rethinking talent and work models have become mission-critical for businesses as they navigate uncertainties in the future of work. As organisations embark on initiatives to better drive profitability, job redesign can help to drive this change by understanding how existing jobs need to shift to help businesses become more innovative and improve performance.

The playbook dives into how Job Redesign can address key business challenges through:

• Elevating Productivity: As organisations work on initiatives to drive productivity, implementing job redesign will help to drive this change by understanding how existing jobs need to shift to achieve better productivity.

• Sustaining Career Health: Employees recreating and enhancing their job activities or automating mundane tasks by being aware, taking necessary action and being agile within their jobs and thereby improving their own career health.

• Driving Skills-first Hiring: Embarking on job redesign to review and augment aspects of a role to leverage available skillsets within organisations and allow businesses to tap on a wider talent pool.

• Promoting ESG (Sustainability): Facilitating the evolution of jobs to incorporate environment, social and governance-related tasks and ensure upskilling of employees to account for new skillsets and drive effective implementation and delivery of new technologies.

The Six-step REVAMP Framework

Through a proprietary six-step REVAMP framework (Review JR opportunities; Examine and Redesign; Validate and Prioritise; Action Planning; Mobilise; and Post-Implementation Review), the playbook details each of the steps in job redesign including using proven practices from local companies to improve productivity and increase the capabilities of the talent pool for enterprises of all sizes and scale.

Visual 1: REVAMP Framework from the IHRP JR for HR Playbook

An example featured in the playbook is Singapore Pools, where the HR Operations Executive (HRIS) role was transformed through Job Redesign. Currently, the role is largely focused on manual and repetitive tasks. For instance, the extraction and preparation of reports take up approximately 20% of the workweek, while system administration duties such as performing data entries in SuccessFactors (SF) accounts for another 13%. This limits the time available for higher-value responsibilities.

Recognising these challenges, Singapore Pools embarked on a Job Redesign journey. By leveraging on digital tools to streamline data reporting and eliminate manual processes, efficiency, and productivity for the HRIS role was significantly enhanced, allowing the HR Operations Executive to focus on other high impact tasks that contribute to the overall company’s business efficiency.

Mr. Aslam Sardar, Chief Executive Officer, IHRP, said: “The JR Playbook for HR highlights Singapore’s commitment towards helping businesses manage their talent pool while supporting employees with their career health. By reviewing aspects of jobs, organisations can identify roles that drive greater value creation and fit with business strategies that ultimately contribute to business growth. While most business leaders are well versed in identifying business objectives and response actions, they must ensure that both the jobs and the employees are well equipped to effectively execute change strategies that lead to business transformation. The playbook will ensure that these changes are clearly articulated and well managed.”

He shared: “We look forward to working closely with our tripartite and ecosystem partners to implement the playbook and help companies identify and redesign jobs needed to drive or facilitate organisational change and workforce transformation. This will enable businesses to increase competitiveness, drive innovation and increase profitability.”

For the full playbook, refer to https://bit.ly/IHRPjrhr. Refer to Annex A for the infographic.

About the Institute for Human Resource Professionals

The Institute for Human Resource Professionals (IHRP) is set up by the tripartite partners: the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) to professionalise and strengthen the HR practice in Singapore.

IHRP sets the benchmark standards of excellence for HR and human capital development in organisations. Through a range of national human capital programmes such as the IHRP Certification, Human Capital Diagnostic Tool (HCDT) and IHRP Knowledge Partner Programme and appointed as the Job Redesign Centre of Excellence (JRCoE), IHRP aims to develop HR as a strategic enabler of business and workforce transformation and foster a vibrant HR services eco-system to drive innovation and change. For more information, please visit ihrp.sg

About the Job Redesign Centre of Excellence

The Job Redesign Centre of Excellence (JRCoE) is the Institute for Human Resource Professionals’s one-stop centre to equip enterprises with the capability to undertake business and workforce transformation through job redesign.

In collaboration with Workforce Singapore (WSG), JRCoE enables enterprises through job redesign, and uplift the workforce by creating higher-value jobs. By reshaping roles and rethinking productivity, job redesign unlocks a world of growth and opportunities. Visit https://www.ihrp.sg/jrcoe/ for more information.

Media Contact

Ashley Ng

Assistant Manager, Marketing and Partnership Development

Ashley.ng@ihrp.sg

[1] https://www.aon.com/en/insights/reports/global-risk-management-survey/top-global-risk-4-failure-to-attract-or-retain-top-talent