Flexible work arrangements key to employee recruitment, retention

Paradise Group Holdings' Karen Tan talks about their commitment to employees' work-life harmony and their adoption of the Tripartite Standard on Flexible Work Arrangements.

The food and beverage industry is known for its long working hours and different work shifts, making hiring and retaining employees an enormous and continuing challenge. These issues were magnified at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As pandemic restrictions have considerably eased, companies are discovering that adopting flexible work arrangements (FWA) is key to hiring or getting their employees to return to the office. Paradise Group Holdings, a Singapore-based restaurant group, was a pioneer in implementing work-life and FWA initiatives in 2012.

"We started such flexi-work schemes ten years ago when it was still pretty unheard of. We wanted to attract and retain employees by offering flexibility in working hours. We also wanted to attract more locals, such as secondary breadwinners and tertiary students, to supplement our full-time workforce," said Karen Tan, Regional HR Director of Paradise Group.

"Over the years, our flexi-work schemes have generated much interest. Other F&B companies have also started implementing similar schemes in the last few years"

Out-of-the-box FWA Programmes