Exploring flexible employment for retired workers in Singapore

This call was made by Professor Paulin Straughan, director and principal investigator at Centre for Research on Successful Ageing (ROSA).

With longer lifespans, there is a bigger proportion of the population who are in good health but unengaged due to the “static” retirement age in Singapore. As such, there is a need to make it easier for older adults to find jobs, she said.

However, this would require a mindset shift for employers who need to be creative about the type of work for older workers, said Janice Chia, founder and managing director of Ageing Asia.

Chia gave examples of initiatives in Japan, where a Silver Human Resource Centre communicates with older people and helps them look for job opportunities.

In a rapidly ageing country like Singapore, a feasible employment model is one that lets people choose, on a daily basis, if they would like to work. 

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“You could sit down in a daily meeting and find out what are the jobs available in your neighbourhood and decide whether or not you want to participate in them,” she said. “If you choose to participate in them, the hours will be calculated at the end of the month, and you could then be paid for those hours.”

Chia and Professor Straughan were speaking to radio station CNA938, an English radio station of Singapore broadcaster Mediacorp.