Word of the Day: Manpower-lean

by Tan Chu Chze

SINGAPORE’S workforce is also a life force. Our words about work keep us – as persons, and as a people – alive: inflation, growth, trade, and interest rates affect employment, salary, dividends and bonuses.

It is within this body of vocabulary that Singapore has given life to a new word: “manpower-lean”. In fact, Singapore is the only nation to consistently use the term for three years running now.

“Manpower-lean” was born in a difficult time. Back in 2013, anxieties about employment of non-Singaporeans were peaking. It was in addressing this issue that then-acting Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin delivered the word-child:

“We know that local workers are in short supply especially for rank-and-file jobs; so therefore it is not just about reducing the dependence on foreign labour, we should seek to restructure ourselves to be a manpower-lean economy as well.”

And like a baby’s first breath, a new idea painfully but necessarily seared through the lungs of our economy. Ever since then, “manpower-lean” has matured into an integral part of the Ministry of Manpower’s vocabulary.

“Manpower-lean” imagines the workforce as the flesh of a body, which can come in many forms: thin and scrawny, flabby and blubbery, muscular and bulky, etc. In Singapore, we want our labour muscles “lean”. Our workforce has to be fit and healthy – naturally strong, high in energy, low in fat. Just like grass-fed beef and not wagyu. We don’t want fatty bits of employees who are all potential, but no action. Neither do we need large, powerful muscles of staffing with capacity to do more work than is available.

We want a functional and efficient body type. Minimal mass for maximal output. No excess.

Similarly, the economic dream encapsulated by “manpower-lean” is for a compact workforce; it is dense but not large, yet robust enough to carry its own weight and then some. This is the same notion of “lean” that drives Lean Manufacturing, a philosophy that aims to systematically eliminate ‘waste’ derived from inconsistency and excess in work distribution.

Unfortunately this economic restructuring also comes at a cost. Like any program designed to make fit of flab, it takes lots of effort, discipline, and a severe lack of ice cream. Translated back to employment jargon, this means each of us has to work more efficiently and effectively. (Cue groaning.) Can technology be harnessed so that I can accomplish two person’s jobs instead of one? Maybe further education or job redesign should be considered as well. Employers can even consult The Lean Transformation Innovation Centre – which I suppose is the employment equivalent of a gym with fitness instructors.

Regardless of the means, the goal is the same. How can we, as a workforce, do better with what we have… or even less? How do we attain beautiful biceps of productivity and rock-solid abs of industry?

As any fitspirational meme would tell you, that will not be easy. It will probably be tough, and uncomfortable, and you will crave french fries and char kway teow. But stick it out and stay willpower-strong – take things a step at a time – one day, we’ll be manpower-lean.

 

Featured Image by Sean Chong.

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The post Word of the Day: Manpower-lean appeared first on The Middle Ground.

- Tan Chu Chze