Defying ageism at the office: 3 Singapore employers share why mature workers are valuable assets

Contrary to what stereotypes will have you believe, mature jobseekers are attractive hires to Singapore companies, given their adaptability, tenacity and wealth of experience 

Over-qualified, slow and inflexible — these are just a few of the negative stereotypes mature workers in Singapore have experienced at some point in their job search journeys.

During a national broadcast this June, Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who also chairs the new National Jobs Council, mentioned that “no Singaporean who is willing to learn should be ‘too old’ to hire, and no one who is willing to adapt should be viewed as ‘overqualified’.” 

This statement echoes the findings of a research conducted by the Singapore University of Social Sciences, which stated that “mature workers aged 45 and older are adaptable and willing to learn”.

Today, mature workers form a large part of our labour force, with many of them aged 50 and beyond. It’s a statistic that has prompted a range of government initiatives encouraging employers to level an uneven playing field by being open to the invaluable expertise of our mature workers.

The Enhanced Hiring Incentive, launched as part of the SGUnited Jobs and Skills package earlier this year, is one such example. 

It offers salary support for employers of Singaporean mid-career workers aged 40 and above — especially companies that  have hired and trained these mature workers through reskilling programmes. The incentive is beneficial to employers, as such staff will also be equipped with skills to remain competitive in today’s economy.

But for these initiatives to work, employers must first adopt an open mindset to hire and train mature talents. 

When 60-year-old Becky Chang — who has four decades of experience in the shipping industry — applied for a job at Moovas, a Singapore-based startup specialising in international moving services, she did not think she would secure the position. 

But the company recognised her expertise and willingness to learn, and decided she would be a valuable asset to the team. During an interview with The Straits Times, co-founder and chief executive officer Lee Junxian explained that Ms Chang brought diversity and energy to the team, which “has been surprising and something that I’ve learnt in this process”. 

Like Moovas, employers can be a part of this national movement by keeping an open mind and adopting the mindset that age is just but a number. 

Want to learn what employers value in mature employees? Read what three employers — featured in this third instalment of a four-part series by Workforce Singapore (WSG) — have to say about their successful hires.

“I knew that mature PMETs bring with them a wealth of experience and transferable skills”

Pisces Technologies Pte Ltd took a while to find the right talent for several positions in their company. Their CEO then decided to take a chance on a mature PMET who had applied for the position, believing that he had transferable skills that would stand him in good stead.

“I understand the challenges that mature PMETs may face during the job search, and was prepared to give him a chance to prove himself even though he was not an exact match for the role,” says its CEO AS Sundaram.

The company invested in training their new hire, and tapped on government grants to defray salary costs. 

“The salary support covers part of the hiring costs when new employees are learning on the job and trying to fit into their new environment. We were able to set aside time to train him for the job before evaluating his performance,” Mr Sundaram adds.

“We assume that mature workers are not adaptable, but she proved us wrong” 

Like many, Mr Patrick Chew, head of HR and admin at IFS Capital Ltd, could never seem to justify the higher salaries requested by experienced PMETs — until he hired four of them over the course of 12 months.

Group chief financial officer Iris Ang who were amongst the four hires, had years of experience in the financial sector — including public-listed companies — she went on to revamp  the company’s cost allocation structure, boosting transparency and productivity.

“I realised then that the deep experience of mature PMETs justified their higher salaries — I would never imagine saying this before, but we are now converts at IFS Capital,” says Mr Chew.

Another mature PMET who has made a successful career transition is Ms Rebecca Ng, who benefitted from Career Trial, a short-term programme for jobseekers to gain some work experience and assess their job fit. 

Armed with only a GCE “O” level certificate, the 56-year-old mother of three grown-up sons worked her way up the career ladder from a typist to an Executive Assistant with a MNC. She worked there for 20 years before her position was made redundant in 2017. 

With a desire to continue working and supporting the family, she shared with her network of friends that she was open to job opportunities. On a friend’s recommendation and heeding the government’s call to move into the digital economy, she decided to venture out of her comfort zone and try a new role in Digital Marketing. 

Business Connectivity Pte Ltd offered to put Ms Ngon the Career Trial as a Digital Marketing Specialist. After a three-month trial, her employer was impressed by her performance and placed her in a full-time job with training under the Professional Conversion Programme for Digital Marketing Specialist. Although Ms Ng took a 40 per cent pay cut for her current role, she has gained new skills for the digital economy. 

“Having a diverse workforce helps create a more successful business”

Tech company Justlogin proves that like its expertise in developing the latest cloud-based human resource solutions, the company is just as progressive in its attitude towards mature workers.

“Nowadays, tech companies are often perceived to hire millennials instead of more mature workers. However, this is not the case with our 19-year-old company. We have a mix of workers within our company, including a few [older employees] ranging from 40 to 55 years old. Our oldest employees include our director of HR, who is in her 50s,” shares its CEO and founder Kwa Kim Chiong.

The company hired a retired senior IT executive who previously held a senior position in a multinational corporation. 

While there were some gaps in his skills — he lacked experience in dealing with SME customers and was unfamiliar with their products — Mr Kwa said the PMET was able to “draw parallels from his previous work experience, setting up processes and KPIs which had good results, both motivating our team and gaining their respect”.

He adds: “From my experience with older workers, it is easier to bring one in to follow an existing unfamiliar process or adopt a new system that has been running, than to get someone already in the company to follow a new system or process. 

“An instance here is when new staff of various ages joined us after we moved to a new cloud-based accounting software. No matter what their age, none of them had any issues accepting the new system.

“This shows that it’s down to a person’s adaptability, not age, when it comes to adopting new things. In general, it’s a human trait to not be able to accept change so easily.”