SINGAPORE
Singapore’s Public Servants have been told they must get behind the Government’s Public Sector Transformation (PST) program “or risk being ossified and forced to change by circumstances”.
Head of Service, Leo Yip (pictured) said the PST required Public Servants to rethink service delivery, digitalisation, regulatory reviews, citizen engagement and building new capability.
“While progress is being made, there is more to do,” Mr Yip said.
“To effect deep change… we need to transform three ‘Ws’: Work, workforce and workplace.”
He gave a number of examples of what had been achieved under ‘work’, focusing on the reorganisation of Government services around citizens and businesses rather than around Agencies.
“For example, citizens can now access services from 12 Government Agencies through the community hub-based Public Service Centre, while GoBusiness, a one-stop online portal, enables business owners to apply for licences in one place rather than interacting with the relevant Agencies separately,” Mr Yip said.
On workforce, he said that new ways of working required new skills and competencies, explaining that the Government was working towards a system that “places greater emphasis on lifelong employability beyond lifelong employment”.
Speaking of a new effort to transform the Public Service’s work culture, both in terms of new physical workplace designs and work processes, Mr Yip said bureaucratic procedures would be revamped along with the implementation of new workplace practices “to enable more flexible and collaborative work”.
“We want our future workplace to be more productive, agile and flexible. This is where PST becomes real, relevant and relatable to our officers,” he said.
Singapore, 28 January 2020
