At a time of rapid change, having certified HR practitioners is not just good practice but a genuine competitive advantage
SINGAPORE has never been short of ambition, and the recent Economic Strategy Review (ESR) – with its blueprint for growth, resilience and good jobs – is proof that the country continues to think boldly about its future.
For those who work in human resource (HR) management and people development, there is much to be energised by. Read the ESR’s final recommendations carefully and it becomes clear that people are not just a part of this strategy. They are, in fact, consequential to its success.
The rapid pace of change is undeniable. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 projects that close to 40 per cent of core job skills will change by 2030.
In Singapore, only about one in five professionals currently demonstrate the consistent behaviour of artificial intelligence-ready talent, namely, curiosity, persistence and reflective learning.
And while most employees feel confident in their roles today, that confidence erodes when technology-specific skills come into focus.
These numbers tell of enormous potential to make a difference for workers, for organisations and for Singapore, and point us to the opportunities ahead for those who intentionally pursue them.
And they make clear that the people who lean into this momentum, and who invest in learning and growth before the change arrives, will be the ones who lead and shape what comes next.
The ESR captures this spirit well. It does not advocate slowing down AI or automation to protect existing jobs. It acknowledges that the path forward runs through change. What matters is how we bring our people along for the journey.
Reimagining what learning at work can look like
One of the most exciting threads running through the ESR is its vision for lifelong learning becoming a much more integral part of working life.
Work-study programmes offer a link between classroom learning and practical on-the-job applications.
Couple this with modular and stackable credentials that let workers build skills progressively, without stepping away from the workforce, we now have career frameworks that formally recognise what people learn as they work, not just what they studied decades ago.
This is a meaningful shift in how we think about development, and it opens up a genuine creative space for HR leaders to work with their business counterparts to play a consequential role in uplifting the full potential of their workforce.
Imagine if learning was not something workers had to find time for, but something that happened naturally in how roles were designed. Or if managers saw coaching as one of the most valuable tasks they could do.
What if organisations celebrated the acquisition of new skills as enthusiastically as they celebrated hitting targets?
These are no longer distant ideals, but practical possibilities that forward-thinking organisations are already beginning to realise.
The opportunity in job redesign
As transformation gains pace, job redesign, which reshapes roles to reflect new technologies, work flows and value creation, is increasingly central to how Singapore companies are likely to respond to the ESR’s call to action.
The most successful efforts treat capability building not as a follow-on step, but as the foundation.
DLE M&E, a local mechanical and electrical (M&E) specialist contractor operating in a tight labour market, faced challenges that will resonate with many employers: persistent manpower constraints, heavy administrative burdens and uneven adoption of digital tools.
Instead of waiting for the right talent to arrive from outside, it looked inward.
Through structured job redesign, it reimagined the roles of project managers and project engineers, shifting them from manual coordination and paper-based reporting towards digitally enabled planning, real-time data capture and proactive decision-making.
What makes DLE M&E’s experience instructive is not just the technology it deployed, but how deliberately it invested in the people using it.
Managers were coached to lead redesigned roles with a new mindset, not just new tools. Targeted training road maps were built to strengthen digital and problem-solving capabilities.
In one telling detail, a team member proactively delved into coding to improve a procurement application’s interface. Such initiatives, marginal as they may appear, speak to a larger cultural shift the organisation had deliberately cultivated.
The results were tangible: reporting lag fell from two to three days to under one day, productivity improved by 20 per cent, and it freed up capacity which could be redirected into higher-value work.
Perhaps more importantly, the roles themselves became more attractive; enriched in scope, more developmental, and better positioned to draw in the next generation of engineering talent. This is the full potential of what job redesign, done well, can deliver.
It is not simply about doing the same work with fewer people.
It is about reshaping roles in ways that create value, build resilience, and support both business performance and workforce well-being and ensuring that workers have the skills, support and confidence to grow into those reshaped roles.
Bringing people through the AI journey
AI sits at the heart of the ESR’s ambitions for Singapore.
The vision of an AI-empowered economy where Singapore leads in developing and deploying AI solutions is an exciting one. But the organisations that will thrive in that future are not necessarily the ones that move fastest with the technology.
They are the ones that move most thoughtfully with their people.
HR leaders are well-placed to make this happen. They understand where AI can genuinely augment workers rather than simply displace them. They can redesign roles that bring together human judgment and machine capability in ways that are more fulfilling.
Furthermore, HR professionals can cultivate the psychological safety that enables people to approach change with curiosity rather than anxiety, bringing people through transformation as a strategic capability.
The case for certified HR
Navigating this scale of workforce transformation calls for a level of HR practice that is grounded, rigorous and continuously evolving.
Certified HR professionals – those who hold credentials such as the IHRP (Institute for Human Resource Professionals) Certification – bring exactly that.
They approach workforce strategy with evidence and structure. They are equipped to identify capability gaps, design learning environments that produce real outcomes, and partner with business leaders on decisions that balance performance and people.
In a period of rapid change, having certified HR practitioners is not just good practice, but a genuine competitive advantage.
Organisations that invest in professional HR capability are better placed to turn the ESR’s recommendations into sustainable results: building workforces that are resilient, motivated and ready for what comes next.
Certification reflects a commitment to doing this work at the highest level, and that commitment will increasingly matter more.
A moment worth embracing
The ESR is an invitation to think bigger about what Singapore’s workforce can become, and to act with the kind of intentionality that turns ambition into reality.
HR professionals sit at the centre of that movement – not as administrators of process, but as the architects of new roles and culture where people grow, adapt and bring their best.
The opportunity to shape workplaces that are not just more productive, but also better for the people, is right in front of us. Let us make the most of it.
The writer is the CEO of the Institute for Human Resource Professionals
