Tag Archives: productivity

Minister of Trade and Industry (MTI) Chan Chun Sing recently responded to media questions about the over-reliance on foreign construction workers. To replace this 300,000 foreign workforce, he argued that Singapore will need 2,500 local babies per year over the next 40 years to become construction workers. His challenge was based on the assumption that 100,000 Singaporean workers will be three times as productive as these foreign labour. Just today, the Workers' Party Yee Jenn Jong wrote a blog post to counter Chan Chun Sing's opinion.

A netizen who was equally perplexed by the PM's talking points during the NDR highlighted actual issues which should have been raised at the event. He thinks politicians should not focus on the "rosy outlook" here because Singapore will no longer be a special location in the global economy if they adopt this narrow mindset.

Historian Thum Pingtjin disagreed with Minister Lawrence Wong for saying that Singapore has never failed in restructuring its economy. He said such a statement shows our politicians' ignorance about the nation's history and policymaking as the "PAP has failed more times at restructuring the economy than it has succeeded".

Responding to the recent highway collapse near PIE which left 1 dead and 10 injured, Minister for Manpower Lim Swee Say said it was a man-made incident that could be avoided if everyone paid enough attention to workplace safety. DUH.

“Having expanded at an average of 7.7 per cent since independence in 1965, gross domestic product (GDP) growth decreased from 4.7 per cent in 2013 to 2 per cent in 2015 and 1.8 per cent last year. At the core of this tempering of growth is a slowdown in productivity.

I am a local Singaporean. I live here since the day I was born and I have always been defensive when non-Singaporeans criticize Singapore’s system and way of life. Unfortunately recently I experience the “efficient” and “high productivity” of Singapore’s civil servant that I decided to speak out openly. The visa application was made at Singapore Embassy abroad on 9th February 2016. Base on Immigration and Checkpoint Authority of Singapore website, it takes 3 working days for approval. I believe the process of visa approval is based on Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). I also understand that some cases require more time to approve than others. However to date, 12 working days later, the visa is still pending.

I feel strongly that I must made a stand for the policy of foreign talents in Singapore. Dear oppositions and fellow Singaporean, when you make the accusation that foreign talents have taken over Singaporean jobs please reconsider. It is the true or it is Singaporean are becoming more choosy?

We often hear the MSM and pro-government supporters that FTs increase our pay and create more jobs. And on top of these, they can speak English and serve customers better. However, my experiences beg to differ and also their productivity rate is really horrible. Let me recount a few incidents to justify my views.

Mr Nicholas Bloom, professor of economics at Stanford University, and graduate student James Liang, who is a co-founder of Chinese travel website Ctrip, gave staff at Ctrip’s call centre the opportunity to volunteer to work from home for nine months. Half the volunteers were allowed to telecommute, while the rest remained in the office as a control group. Ctrip thought savings on space and furniture as a result of people working from home would outweigh the fall in productivity when employees left the discipline of the office environment. Instead, performance data collected found that employees working from home completed 13.5 per cent more calls than staff in the office — meaning Ctrip got almost an extra workday a week out of them.

People can now leave their offices without fear of being disconnected from their work. Indeed, many would consider smartphones to be among the most important tools ever invented, when it comes to increasing the productivity of knowledge work. However, our new research indicates that greater connectivity comes at a cost: Using a smartphone to cram more work into a given evening results in less work done the next day. The reason for this is that smartphones are bad for sleep, and sleep is very important to effectiveness as an employee.