SINGAPORE: The upcoming Singapore budget will include schemes to develop a larger pool of Singaporean workers to cater to the needs of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), said Minister of State for Trade and Industry Teo Ser Luck on Monday.
Mr Teo revealed this during a visit to a Soup Spoon outlet on Monday morning.
The minister said that the Singapore government is looking at how to help SMEs expand while managing business costs, given the rising cost of manpower in Singapore. Special attention will also be paid to smaller SMEs, he said.
"It is important for us not just to tighten labour, but to invest in our own resources, our local talents, to groom them and to grow them and to feed them into the pipeline for SMEs. That creates job opportunities for them, (and) also a career path for many of our local Singaporeans," said the minister.
Mr Teo said details of the schemes will be announced after Budget Day next week.
The Soup Spoon, for example, has rolled out initiatives to streamline business operations and improve workflow.
The food chain lowered rentals by reducing their outlets' kitchen sizes by two-thirds. It also adopted a new manpower scheduling system late last year, which helped the company optimise its workers by allocating manpower according to demand. The system has helped save the company an estimated S$150,000 annually in manpower costs.
The company's management has also expressed hopes to centralise the use of its part-timers so that it can be even more efficient in deploying workers to its 18 outlets.
Part-timers now form the majority, or 60 per cent, of the company's 300-strong staff, a twofold increase in proportion from the 30 per cent the company had in 2010.
With its revenue growing by 25 per cent annually since 2007, The Soup Spoon says it is focused on improving its productivity.
"For a lot of the food based companies, growth largely comes from outlets. So if you try to grow more outlets, and if you know (that) there are constraints like high rentals and low manpower, then the more you grow the more your problem grows significantly... It's a business model review (problem)," said Andrew Chan, managing director of The Soup Spoon.
- CNA/jc
Budget to include schemes to develop manpower for SMEs: Teo Ser Luck
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Budget to include schemes to develop manpower for SMEs: Teo Ser Luck
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