Mr Masagos Zulkifli, Minister for Social and Family Development,

Mr Hsieh Fu Hua, Chairman, SBF Foundation,

Mr Chew Hock Yong, Chairman, SG Enable,

Ms Ku Geok Boon, CEO, SG Enable,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good afternoon. I am delighted to be here today to launch the Enabling Mark.

The Enabling Mark recognises employers who are empowering, innovative and collaborative, in the inclusion of persons with disabilities in their organisations. The launch of the Enabling Mark ties in very nicely with the focus of this year’s President’s Challenge, which is on empowering persons with disabilities.

I launched the President’s Challenge Enabling Employment Pledge in March this year to rally employers to provide more employment opportunities to persons with disabilities. Since the launch, over 140 employers have pledged their commitment to adopt an inclusive mindset, create barrier-free workplace environments and implement supportive employment policies for employees with disabilities.

Employers play a key role in this effort to empower persons with disabilities. Businesses have been deeply affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, so I am truly grateful to the employers who have continued to step up in providing employment opportunities to persons with disabilities during this difficult time.

One employer who has signed the Enabling Employment Pledge is Seoul Garden Group, a home-grown F&B business. Seoul Garden Group has a strong track record of inclusive hiring. 10% of their staff are persons with disabilities, of whom almost half have more than 5 years of service. This positive staff retention rate demonstrates the company’s strong inclusive culture.

I would like to share with you the experience of one of their employees, Jonathan, and how his career has progressed since he joined the company in 2015 as a Kitchen Assistant. Jonathan is deaf and has a speech impairment. When he started out, he was trained to prepare food for the buffet counter and learned basic deep-frying skills. Like all new employees, he was worried about working in a new team, and especially how they would react to his disabilities. These worries were fortunately unfounded, as he was warmly welcomed by his colleagues who treated him as part of the family. Some of his supervisors even took the initiative to learn sign language so they could communicate better with him.

Over time, Jonathan picked up more skills such as taking food orders, cooking and in customer service. In 2016, he received training as a Front-of-House Service Assistant and became part of the team for a new outlet. In this new role, he had to interact with customers. Undeterred by the communication challenges, he greeted everyone with a smile and a strong sense of enthusiasm, and interacted with customers through gesturing, and writing on paper. His deafness made him more attentive to non-verbal cues and he also learned to better anticipate customers’ needs.

Today, Jonathan is a Senior Service Assistant, tasked to coach and provide on-the-job training to new hires – with and without disabilities – at Seoul Garden HarbourFront Centre. He has also been placed in the company’s career progression programme to hone his leadership and management skills, in preparation for his career advancement to be a Restaurant Supervisor.

From Jonathan’s journey, we can see that the support of employers is critical in empowering persons with disabilities to realise their potential. With the right job match, reasonable job accommodations and a focus on abilities, employees with disabilities can excel in their work, take on greater responsibilities and grow in their career.

That is why I am happy to launch the Enabling Mark today, as it recognises inspiring employers who are inclusive in hiring, innovative in seeking out new ideas to enable employees to fulfil their potential, and collaborative in achieving more through teamwork and diversity.

It has not been an easy year for many businesses against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we recognise that inclusive hiring may not naturally be top of mind for most businesses right now. However, it is precisely in such times that we must not lose sight of the benefit of inclusive hiring. When companies and businesses recruit and hire persons with disabilities, they are tapping on a wider talent pool. And employees with disabilities are in turn provided with gainful employment which helps them to live more independently.

I am glad to see trade associations and chambers of commerce joining us today. Trade associations and chambers of commerce play an important role as thought leaders in the industry, to encourage businesses to embark on inclusive hiring. As multipliers with large employer networks, you can make a tremendous difference by working with SG Enable to promote disability employment and the Enabling Mark to your members. For example, businesses that operate in the HDB heartlands could provide jobs for those with disabilities living around the area. This minimizes the need for travel, which can be quite a deterrent for some with physical impediments, and increases access and open up so many more jobs for persons with disabilities.  In this regard, we should also work with more agencies serving our neighbourhoods. The Community Development Councils for instance, can take on this task of matching jobs available in the neighbourhood businesses to persons with disabilities living in those areas under them and, in this way, make their presence on the ground much more impactful.

I would also like to encourage employers who have affirmed your commitment to disability inclusion through the President’s Challenge Enabling Employment Pledge to also consider applying for the Enabling Mark. The Pledge was a meaningful first step, and getting accredited by the Enabling Mark would be a further affirmation as you continue your disability-inclusive journey.

Finally, I would like to thank all supporters who believe in our vision to build a caring and inclusive Singapore, and the SBF Foundation for their contributions towards the development of the Enabling Mark.

As we come together today to celebrate the launch of the Enabling Mark, let us continue to support one another in this journey of empowering persons with disabilities. Let us work together to build a more inclusive Singapore – a society that embraces everyone. A small step from each of us can make a big difference for people with disabilities.

Thank you.