Companies will grow when your employees are happier and possess relevant skill sets that are required of an employee. As an employer, there are many resources available to help you enhance your employee's capabilities and productivity. When employees are equipped with the right skills to deliver their best, they can play a dynamic part in helping your company to be more competitive.

Effective retention

To understand how to retain good employees, you first need to know what they’re looking for. Today, the best employees want:

• Career development opportunities and a chance to grow in their chosen field
• Regular feedback on how both they and the company are doing
• A chance to contribute directly to the organization and be recognized for doing so
• Flexible work schedules that recognize their need for work/life balance
• A good salary or wage and an opportunity to increase it over time
• Benefits tailored to their individual needs

Key strategies

Good retention starts from the time you hire employees to the time they leave your company. See how tweaking some of your employment practices can have a big impact on employee retention:

1. Recruitment and hiring. It’s worth spending time and effort on recruiting. When there’s a good match between employees and your organization, retention is less likely to be an issue.
2. Orientation and onboarding. Again, it’s worth having good practices in place. Treating employees right in the critical early stages of employment has been proven to enhance retention.
3. Training and development. Training and development are key factors in helping employees grow with your company and stay marketable in their field.
4. Performance evaluation. When employees know what they’re doing well and where they need to improve, both they and your organization benefit.
5. Pay and benefits. While today many employees tend to rate factors such as career development higher than pay, good pay and benefits still count.
6. Internal communication. Effective communication can help ensure that employees to want to stay with your company. Employees need to know and be reminded on a regular basis how the organization is doing and what they can do to help. Encourage feedbacks from employees.
7. Termination and outplacement. Employees who leave on good terms are much more likely to recommend your company, and in doing so, help you attract and retain future employees.

Subsidized Funding For Employer Based Training

Course Fee Subsidies and Absentee Payroll Funding are available for employers sponsoring employees who are either a Singapore Citizen or Permanent Resident.

1. Course Fee Subsidies

   Course Fee Subsidies for employer-sponsored training are available for courses conducted by external or in-house training providers. Subsidies for courses may be claimed up to 95% of the course fees; depending on the type of courses and requirements set by the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA).

   Table 1: Course Fee Subsidies for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) for External Courses (with effect from 1 October 2015)
   	Type of Course	Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents	Singapore Citizens
   			Aged ≥ 40 years	Aged ≥ 35 years and earning ≤ $1,900/month
   Courses offered by WDA-appointed CET Centres	Non-PME-level Courses	Up to 90% of course fees		95% of course fees
   	PME-level Courses
   Certifiable Courses approved by WDA	Non-PME-level Courses	90% of course fees, capped at $25/hour		95% of course fees
   	PME-level Courses	90% of course fees, capped at $50/hour for PME level courses
   Non-Certifiable Courses approved by WDA	All	$2/hour

   *PME – Professionals, Managers and Executives

   Table 2: Course Fee Subsidies for Non – SMEs for External Courses (with effect from 1 October 2015)
   	Type of Course	Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents	Singapore Citizens
   			Aged ≥ 40 years1	Aged ≥ 35 years and earning ≤ $1,900/month
   Courses offered by WDA-appointed CET Centres	Non-PME-level Courses	Up to 90% of course fees	Up to 90% of course fees	95% of course fees
   	PME-level Courses	Up to 70% of course fees
   Certifiable Courses approved by WDA	Non-PME-level Courses	80% of course fees, capped at $17/hour	90% of course fees, capped at $25/hour	95% of course fees
   	PME-level Courses	50% of course fees, capped at $15/hour	90% of course fees, capped at $50/hour for PME level courses
   Non-Certifiable Courses approved by WDA	All	$2/hour

   
   

   Table 3: Course fee Subsidies for In-house Courses
   	Type of Course	Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents		Singapore Citizens aged ≥ 35 years and earning ≤ $1,900/month
   		SME1	Non-SME	SME	Non-SME
   Certifiable Courses approved by WDA	Non-PME-level Courses	$15/hour	$7/hour	$15/hour	$8.50/hour
   	PME-level Courses		$15/hour		$15/hour
   Non-Certifiable Courses approved by WDA	All	$2/hour

    

2. Absentee Payroll Funding

   Absentee Payroll (AP) funding is a grant to help employers defray the manpower costs incurred when they send their employees for certifiable skills training during working hours. For training conducted outside working hours, the grant is meant to alleviate the opportunity costs incurred by the employees. Hence, the funding is to be paid to the employees together with the mandatory top-up by the employer.

   Note: The Absentee Payroll funding is not applicable to on-the-job training (OJT) hours.

   In order to be eligible for Absentee Payroll funding, the applicant company must meet the following criteria:

   • Company must be registered or incorporated in Singapore
   • Trainees must be fully sponsored by their employer for supportable cost components (such as course fees) incurred on the training course
   • Trainees must be full-time or permanent part-time employees of the sponsoring company
   • Trainees must continue to receive their salary when they attend training
   • Trainees must have achieved at least 75% attendance
   • Trainees must have sat for and passed the examinations/ assessments where applicable
   • Trainees must complete the course whilst under employment of the sponsoring company

Note:

With effect from 1 April 2009, government entities are not eligible for AP funding. This includes private entities held under a government agency whose expenditure on manpower is partially government funded.

The above information is provided by WDA, for more information on funding and training development for employees, please refer to WDA website at www.wda.gov.sg for more detail.