HIGH-PERFORMANCE WORKPLACE

Dr Kanwaljit Soin asked the Minister for Trade and Industry what further measures are being contemplated to ensure a "high-performance workplace" in companies, and what is the ratio of companies that can be considered as high-performance workplaces.

Mr Yeo Cheow Tong: In an article entitled, "Training up America", which appeared in a recent issue of The Economist, it was suggested that the way to achieve productivity gains was through a "high-performance workplace". Essentially, this involves management techniques which allow workers to use technology productively and to organize themselves flexibly.

To create a high-performance workplace, commitment on the part of the company management in two areas is crucial:

(a) training and upgrading workers' skills to ensure that workers keep pace with technological advancements; and

(b) encouraging workers to participate in the company's efforts to improve productivity, through Quality Control Circles (QCCs).

To this end, the National Productivity Board (NPB) has introduced various worker training and upgrading programmes, and provided financial incentives through the Skills Development Fund for companies to put their workers through such programmes. It has also actively promoted the formation of QCCs at the workplace as a tool to increase productivity.

To further promote worker training, NPB will emphasise on-the-job training (OJT) especially to small- and medium-sized companies which will find this approach more affordable. NPB aims to institutionalise OJT on an industry-wide basis and train 100,000 workers through OJT by the year 2000. To achieve this, NPB will recruit and train some 500 OJT instructors over the next 3 years to provide on-site training and help establish OJT systems in companies.

NPB also plans to launch several new programmes this year aimed at specific target groups of workers. These target groups include first-line supervisors, workers involved in our key industrial clusters, and workers affected by the rationalization and restructuring of our industries.

With regard to worker participation in QCCs, NPB plans to double the participation rate of private sector employees in QCCs to 4 per cent by 1995 through:

(a) working with the NTUC to reach out to unionized companies which require assistance in setting up QCCs in the workplace;

(b) promoting QCCs to top management of companies by inviting CEOs to participate in QCC conventions and seconding QCC experts to companies to help implement QCCs; and

(c) promoting QCC training programmes at NPB's QCC College.