SINGAPORE: In helping companies deal with the labour shortage, the government said it will enhance the Productivity and Innovation Credit Scheme (PIC).

It will also set aside S$2 billion to the National Productivity Fund (NPF) to provide more targeted support for industries to restructure.

Taking into account feedback from business groups, the government said it will increase the cash payout to companies from 30 per cent to 60 per cent for their PIC expenditures.

This means that a company which invested S$10,000 in staff training will be eligible for a S$6,000 cash payout, compared to S$3,000 under the existing PIC scheme.

The government said the scheme is most useful to companies with limited taxable income.

In addition, the companies can also get their cash payout faster.

From July 1, companies can claim and obtain their PIC cash payouts quarterly instead of waiting for the financial year to end.

So far, the PIC scheme has helped companies enjoy tax savings totalling S$650 million since being implemented last year.

About one in three small companies with a turnover of S$10 million or less have used the PIC.

The scheme covers productivity-related expenses such as training or investment in equipment.

Companies that have used the scheme can see their taxes come down by 40 per cent on average.

“What was lacking in the previous year was that most of the scheme (PIC) was directed towards SMEs, (but) unfortunately the SMEs did not get the benefits. The MNCs and the big business operators ended up enjoying most of the benefits,” said Abhijit Ghosh, tax partner, PwC Services LLP (Singapore).

“So it’s all a matter of education, the right focus and ensuring that you incur the expenses on the right buckets where the government is focusing and enhance your productivity.”

Article reference source from Channel News Asia

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Kyle Lagunas is the HR Analyst at Software Advice. On the surface, it’s his job to contribute to the ongoing conversation on all things HR. Beyond that, he makes sure his audience is keeping up with important trends and hot topics in the industry. Focused on offering a fresh take on points of interest in his market, he’s not your typical HR guy. Find out more about him at his blog Software Advice.

Soft skills – those oh-so-important qualities such as adaptability, critical thinking and creativity – are what’s needed to bridge the gap between good and great employees. Unlike with black-and-white technical skills, however, these types of competencies often fall in a gray area of subjectivity. Given the value organizations place on soft skills, it’s essential for human resource (HR) managers to regularly assess their soft skills training programs.

Creating objective ways to measure things that are really subjective, however, can be a serious challenge. There are some things to keep in mind when measuring soft skills programs, and also a few tools that can simplify information gathering and analysis.

Three Keys to Successful Skills Measurement

Leadership needs data that illustrates the value of soft skills training programs. As such you need to identify what matters most to your organization, and there are a few key factors that will help you in uncovering the most actionable information:

●     Determine what you’ll be measuring. It’s important that your organization clearly defines which soft skills are most important, and your company’s core values should guide this discussion closely. For instance, if your organization values internal succession then ensuring employees have the right types of leadership development and mentoring would be critical.

●     Get leadership on board. Rolling out a measurement strategy will be an uphill battle with little payoff unless you have a unified front. Establish clarity and alignment at the outset, as this measurement process will require buy-in across the board.

●     Keep it simple and focused. It’s best to start small and focus measurement around one or two competency areas. The soft skills most essential to your organizations’ specific goals are the best place to start.

Customer & Employee Relations a Good Place to Start

There are two tried-and-true facets of your organization that offer a good starting place to identify areas for improvement. In order to determine where employees need further training, ask two simple questions:

●     Are customers happy and coming back? Efforts to provide customers with the service that keeps them coming back may require some intensive company-wide customer service training, particularly in areas such as conflict resolution or active listening. If leadership is looking to measure how soft skills deliver return on investment (ROI), this is a great place to start gathering actionable data.

●     Do employees have what they need to succeed? Not surprising, it’s important to understand how your employees feel day to day – and I’m not just talking about general job satisfaction. If your people aren’t happy, it’s bound to show in the way they relate to your customers and to each other – which might be an indication that you’re investing in the wrong areas.

Surveys to Software: Gathering & Reviewing Data

Many organizations rely on traditional performance reviews to measure employees’ soft skills competency. Additionally, focus groups and surveys also offer an opportunity to gather feedback specifically about your soft skills training programs. These data sources combined can be used to begin formulating a baseline of how employees are doing in key areas.

By providing actionable data on key areas – retention rates, time to proficiency, cost per employee, etc. – analytics tools found in many talent management systems go a long way in illustrating benchmarks that your business leaders can understand and appreciate. They offer organizations the ability to gather hard data and identify changes and trends in the workforce – areas that can be tracked to soft skill competencies and development.

Regardless of the type of tool used, though, the point here is that you gather the data. With this information, you can then explore questions, such as: Are you seeing increased employee retention? What improvements are these initiatives having on performance and productivity? Starting small and remaining focused helps, as does a healthy dose of patience and perseverance.

Article reference source from Software Advice.

We examine the top six reasons why organizations should start adopting online training courses into their training plans.

Amazing flexibility and convenience

With online training, employees get to determine their own learning speed. As learning speeds differ among individuals, those who take more time to learn can learn comfortably without slowing others down.

Whether employees are looking to refresh the points they have learnt or if they need more time to understand more complex points, they can go through selected sections or the entire course multiple times to maximise absorption.

Employees can work the training schedule around their own workload. If they prefer, they can even go through the course at home. This eliminates the need to coordinate timetables, especially when the numbers to be trained are very large.

Unlimited reusability

Not only can existing users go through the content as many times as they want, the courses can also be kept to train other employees in the future.

This increases your return on investment significantly!

Value for money

According to Training Magazine, corporations save between 50-70% when they opt for online training due to elimination of travel expenses.

Online training courses competently deliver the goals of training without busting your company’s training budget. When employees have to travel to external training locations, the hours spent away from work do not only mean additional costs in transportation but also decreased efficiency and possibly, lost opportunities. The lack of the need for an instructor also keeps costs low.

Consistency

Another benefit from customization is that even after localization, the messages in the localized versions remain consistent across the board. Without the human touch of an instructor, content is delivered as it is without any bias. Having an instructor may mean content getting left out or interpreted differently.

Accessibility at a click

With online training courses, all you need is a computer and internet access to embark on skills-enhancing courses.
For organizations that have employees located in different global offices, and want to implement a universal training course for all, online training courses present the ideal solution.

Even at remote places where internet access is non-existent, employees can still learn from elearning courses in the form of CD-Roms.

Ready implementation

The accessibility of online training courses is also a plus when organizations want to implement training within a short time frame. These courses have been produced with content, design, interactivity and quizzes all seamlessly integrated. Once a purchase has been made, they are good to go!

There are indeed a multitude of benefits of online training. However, if you are looking for courses that are catered specifically for your organization, in terms of its look as well as its content, taking online training courses and localizing them is your best cost-effective solution.

Verztec’s Learning and Development Solutions team is able to work on ready online training courses, adapt the course content to align it with your company’s branding and contextualize scenarios so that they remain relevant and up-to-date with your organization.

Reap the myriad benefits of online training for your organization. Select from Verztec Learning’s comprehensive library of online training courses today!