Budget 2020 – through the eyes of HR
Amidst the uncertainties this year, it is great to see the government tackling this issue swiftly by including measures in this year’s Budget 2020. This year’s budget can be broken down to four main categories.
- Stabilise & Support our enterprises and workers
- Transform & Grow our economy and enterprises
- Care for & Nurture Singaporeans of all ages
- Build & Secure our future
In this article, we will touch on the 2 categories that will impact business growth and processes. There are definitely a lot more to be looked into, but here’s a concise article and also how at Frontier e-HR, we intend to flow with the direction that our government is pushing towards.
Stabilise & Support our enterprises and workers
A main focus in this category is to provide assistance and help the sectors that have been badly hit by the uncertainty brought about by the current economic downturn. The sectors highlighted in this year’s budget are the tourism, aviation, hawkers, point-to-point sectors, and also tenants in commercial properties. A breakdown of the various kinds of support that the government will provide are:
We understand that in this time, each organisation needs to make the most with their current workforce, thus needing to tap into automation to make each person’s job as efficient and productive as possible. Automation in areas such as HR highlights the gaps in the organisations even more in this time.
At Frontier e-HR, we want to do our part to help the sectors that are hit by welcoming organisations from these sectors to speak to our team. We want to help by offering a special promotion specially for you.
Transform & Grow our economy and enterprises
In this category, there is a lot of emphasis on enhancing existing programs and grants that are already benefitting some organisations. Below are 2 programs and grants that you might already be familiar with:
- SMEs Go Digital programme; which includes Productivity Solutions Grant
- Enterprise Development Grant
Although details on how these initiatives will be enhanced are not known yet, but it will mean that more industries can benefit from these. Being a pre-approved PSG vendor, we are glad that more organisations will be able to tap on these to further advance their organisation processes with a stable and user-friendly HRMS.
One new initiative to appear in this category is the SkillsFuture Enterprise Credit (SFEC). It aims to support firms in workforce and enterprise transformation. The SFEC encourages employers to undertake both enterprise and workforce transformation initiative concurrently. Employers who are eligible will receive a one-off credit of $10,000 to offset up to 90% of out-of-pocket expenses for supported programmes. See the list below for supported programmes:
- Enterprise Development Grant (EDG)
- Enterprise Leadership for Transformation Programme (ELT)
- Market Readiness Assistance (MRA)
- Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG)
- Business Improvement Fund (BIF)
- Skills Framework-aligned courses
- Professional Conversion Programme
- Rank-and-File Place-and-Train Programmes
- Job Redesign initiatives
- Training Industry Professionals in Tourism (TIP-iT)
This essentially means that on top of the grant received through these programmes, you may use the SPEC to pay for the remaining amount that is charged to you for undergoing these programmes.
If you would like to know more about how you can leverage of these grants to under HR transformation, feel free to approach our team! We can advise you on best practices and guide you to getting started on the programme.
With all these initiatives coming up, we are excited to empower our customers and fellow SMEs to transform to build a better workforce for all employees! We hope that through this article you have come to understand how Budget 2020 can help and directly impact your organisation.