Manpower Department
By Supt Sim Seok Ling & ASP Lim Chun Zhi

Taking Care of Our Officers
The Manpower Department introduced several new initiatives and schemes in 2007 to recognise the hard work and dedication of its officers.

Rewarding Contributions

A new state medal known as the Long Service Medal (Police) was approved by the President of Singapore, Mr S R Nathan, in 2007. This medal was introduced to recognise 30 years of service and exemplary conduct.

Since its introduction, 317 deserving officers have received this prestigious medal, which can only be earned by Police National Servicemen (PNSmen) who have contributed 25 years of exemplary service towards the SPF. A total of 16 PNSmen are expected to receive this new state medal in 2008.

Volunteer Special Constabulary (VSC) officers who have completed 25 years of distinguished service may also be awarded the new ‘Volunteer Special Constabulary 25 Years’ Star Award’. A total of 53 VSC officers received this new award in 2007.

Additional Support from Civilians

Since 2006, we have been conducting the ‘Civilianisation Exercise’ to convert suitable uniformed posts into civilian establishments. This would enable the redeployment of uniformed officers as frontline officers to focus on core policing functions and the enhancement of SPF’s overall operational effectiveness.

At the same time, the Exercise served to provide an avenue for greater career development opportunities for civilian officers. Thirteen Senior Officer and 41 Police Officer posts have been filled by civilian officers through a combination of methods – re-employment of retired officers, open market recruitment and internal redeployment of existing civilian officers.

Reviewing Salaries

Eligible officers appointed between 1 January 2004 and 31 May 2007 had their gross salaries adjusted upwards. This move ensured that their gross salaries were in line with those of the newly recruited officers, following the upward revision in starting salaries, which took effect from 1 June 2007. The payouts were made in September and October 2007.

As part of the Civil Service salary revision announced in April 2007, eligible officers on the active schemes received Performancebased Payments (PBP). In addition, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) also revised the salaries of officers in the Home Affairs Uniformed Services (HUS) in accordance with findings from the annual salary benchmarking exercise. Senior and Junior Service officers received 4% and 5% gross salary increases respectively, and a transfer exercise was also conducted for officers who were on non-active schemes to facilitate their eligibility for the salary revisions.

Marching Forward as One in FY 2008

The Manpower Department’s focus will always be on SPF officers – supporting, training and rewarding the best and living the maxim that SPF’s ‘People are its Best Asset’.

Organisational Health Survey (OHS) Best Practices Forum

Over 11,000 officers participated in the sixth Organisational Health Survey (OHS) that was held from 24 October to 9 November 2007. SPF surpassed many of the standards set by the private sector and the nation in areas such as Work-Life Effectiveness and Supervision.

Recognising the need to continually improve ourselves, we will focus on some areas that need improvement, such as Service Excellence, Career Development and Performance Management, among others.

The areas for improvement and the issues surrounding them have been thoroughly explored at SPF Leadership Group discussions and at the Work Plan Seminar 2008. Concrete actions plans are being developed and assessed at both departmental and organisational levels, and these plans will be showcased at the OHS Best Practices Forum at the end of 2008.

A New Retention Payment Scheme

To address increasing recruitment and retention challenges, SPF sought approval from the MHA to introduce a new retention payment scheme.

The retention package is $20,000 for Corporal entrants and $30,000 for Sergeant entrants, to be paid over eight years to recognise the contribution and loyalty of officers who stay with MHA over the years. This new scheme will be implemented on 1 October 2008.

Extension of Career Transition Framework

In line with the Government’s intent to offer re-employment to officers up to 65 years of age, SPF was one of three organisations chosen to pilot the adoption of this higher retirement age scheme.

Under this framework, civilian officers who are approaching retirement age will undergo training to acquire generic and specialised skills relevant to the prevailing job market. They will also undergo a screening process to assess their suitability for re-employment in posts within SPF or the larger civil service.