Daily Lessons from Life 12 April 2013 - Employment Discrimination

Heard on the radio the topic of: "Can more legislation stop employment discrimination in Singapore?" where the discrimination happens at 2 levels: 1stly employers against age/gender/race/etc; and 2ndly foreign employers discriminating against Singaporeans.

There were also questions about how 'enforceable' even if these legislation come into being.

My takes are:

1. with clearly defined legislation, especially the negative consequences that can accrue to any employers who discriminate based on age/gender/race/etc and foreign employers who discriminate against Singaporeans, psychologically they will at least, some of them anyway, pause and think harder before deciding to still discriminate against the applicants and Singaporeans;

2. to check against employers who discriminate against applicants by age/gender/race/etc, reliance on:
- 'whistle blowers' or 'aggrieved' applicants' complaints or feedback is the most direct way to start the investigation.

- Some are facts based like: outright discriminating advertisement, % of certain segment of workers displaying disproportionate balance, etc.

- Some will require deeper digging on an individual basis by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) investigators.

3. to check against foreign employers who discriminate against Singaporeans, including firing existing Singaporean employees and hiring replacement from his or her own country or like
- this definitely has to be on an individual basis as the aggrieved person MUST know his or her right and that the laws back fully any employee who were wrongfully dismissed;

- validation will require a holistic approach of consistently high quality of Performance Management System where SMART goals are set and agreed at the outset of each performance period and measure with as much data as possible. A high performing employee CANNOT, without any valid reason, become a LOW performing employee just because of a change of supervisor. A 360 degree feedback and really understanding what the foreign supervisors had done that were SIGNIFICANTLY
different from the previous supervisors that triggered him or her to rate the incumbent from High to Low performance just like that is critical!

The HR Department will have to be the defender of the Corporate Values of Integrity, Fair Employer commitment, etc. No BUSINESS managers or whoever can simply declare that a once high performing employee become a low performing one within the 1-3 months change-over period.

If the HR Department is NOT strong enough, the whole system will collapse and the hiring managers will do whatever they want. This will hurt good performing Singaporeans.

Of course, I am NOT going to be to tell if the 'new foreign hires' will perform BETTER than the incumbent Singaporeans. Into the future no one can gaze and conclude with certainty BUT one can definitely reasonably assess the current performance of the incumbent against SMART goals. This is where the FOCUS should be for this particular question: How to prevent Foreign Employer from discriminating against incumbent Singaporean workers?

As for keeping the foreign employers from hiring too many foreigners, the solution is simple: set a quota on the type of foreign employees the foreign employers can bring in, especially during the start up phase. And then set a requirement for the foreign employers to develop able and willing Singaporeans to takeover the CEO position in 5-10 years period. After all, Singapore DOES have a world class education system as well as having Singaporean students graduating from the best universities around the globe!

There you have it. The 'answers' to the radio's questions!!