Commentary

Raising retirement age shouldn’t mean lowering expectations at work

We need to rethink how jobs are structured and that applies well beyond senior workers.

Singapore needs to cultivate an approach to employment where job redesign is understood as a continuous organisational responsibility, says the writer.

At Tan Tock Seng Hospital, nurses used to have to manually check patients at regular intervals for falls. This put quite a physical and administrative strain on the nurses, particularly senior staff. But the hospital introduced a monitoring system that uses thermal imaging and smart analytics to predict patient falls – freeing up senior enrolled nurses in their late 60s to focus on clinical judgment and patient care.

This is an example of effective job redesign that allows experienced workers to continue to thrive in tasks they are best placed to contribute.

Job redesign is something Senior Minister of State for Manpower Koh Poh Koon touched on when the Government announced on March 3 that the retirement age will rise to 64 and the re-employment age to 69 from July 1.