1. Redeployment/Restructuring
More often than not, your business will have employees that are capable of doing far different roles than their current key roles. If you endeavour to get a good understanding of the skillsets your current employees have, you may be able to apply them to other roles in the business. It has a number of benefits over retrenchment:- Fewer productivity with inexperienced staff in new positions.
- A reduction in the amount of money for redundancy payouts.
- Retain your best employees, even if their current role is no longer needed.
- Reducing the costs for onboarding and training new staff.
2. Training/Retraining
If you do end up moving staff into different positions, you will need to train them. Even if they don’t move into new positions, there are a number of benefits to training and retraining.
- Helps staff feel valued and motivated in trying times.
- Provides you with a long term competitive advantage.
- Fills in gaps for your workforce.
- Absentee payroll subsidies for those in training.
- Training support with the SkillsFuture movement.
- Offering redeployment programmes under the Adapt & Grow initiative.
- Other government grants for certain scenarios.
3. Create a Shorter Work Week
Creating a shorter work week for some, or all of your employees may not be as drastic as it sounds. In fact Microsoft found that a four day work week improved workers’ productivity by 40%. There are some guidelines that MOM sets out:- A work week should not be reduced by more than three days a week.
- If you do reduce the work week by three days, it must only be in severe circumstances.
- The shortened work week should not last more than 3 months.
- If salaries are impacted, you must contact MOM.
4. Make Temporary Layoffs
A slightly sharper alternative would be to ask your staff to not come to work for a short period of time. Again, MOM has some obligations that you must adhere to if you want to go follow this route.- As an employer you must pay that temporarily laid off staff member 50% off their gross salary.
- You can request that temporarily laid off staff take up to 50% of any accrued annual leave.
- Temporary layoffs should not exceed one month for any one employee.
- If salaries are impacted, you must contact MOM.
5. Reduce Wages and Other Allowances
Finally, if your business conditions are particularly severe, and you don’t see a short term solution, you may want to consider reducing wages or salaries to reduce your labour costs. There are a few ways to reduce manpower costs:- Adjustments to annual wage increments.
- Adjustments to variable components.
- Other allowance (gym memberships, etc.).
- No-pay leave.
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