NEA advocates fair employment, career opportunities, and support for work-life effectiveness. We are also committed to equip our employees with skills, knowledge and competencies to perform current and future roles.
Supporting Employee Development
Employee development at NEA is supported by a robust learning infrastructure and senior management. This enables the smooth and seamless execution of learning strategies. Before the start of each year, all employees are encouraged to discuss their career aspirations with their supervisors during the performance management review. Employees then set career goals and development plans that are aligned with NEA’s objectives.
In FY2021, almost all employees completed their annual performance management review. NEA supports the career development plans set during the performance management review through available programmes under the learning infrastructure for employee development.
Completion Rate of Performance Management Review
| FY19 | FY20 | FY21 |
| Male | 98.2% | 98.6% | 92.2% |
| Female | 97.3% | 98.8% | 90.1% |
A comprehensive range of developmental initiatives have been put in place to develop NEA employees.
| Initiatives | Objectives | Outcomes |
| Enhancement of Posting Framework (initiated in 2010) | Provides more structured posting plans for staff with three postings within the first 10 years and two postings in the next 10 years | About 12.6% of NEA’s promising staff, who had spent three or more years on the same job, were posted to different portfolios |
| Internal Market Place (IMP) | Provides staff the opportunity to fill internal positions and develop their career within NEA – all job openings are posted in the IMP and open for application by staff with at least two years of service in their current positions | 32 positions (6.2% of all openings) were filled internally by eligible NEA staff |
| Educational Upgrading | Supports staff in their pursuit of higher education, with opportunities for application of sponsorship even after their course had commenced. This encourages staff to continuously upgrade, upskill and improve themselves through lifelong learning | 14 pursued higher qualifications through NEA’s scholarship and sponsorship schemes |
Programmes that build technical capabilities and competencies, such as training workshops and specialist courses, are regularly conducted to help employees stay ahead in a dynamic operating environment. Some of these programmes have been jointly developed with industry experts and training providers.
NEA also conducted in-house programmes to build awareness on the future of work and encouraged employees to discover their career values and interests, and to have career conversations with their supervisors.
Developing Staff Competencies
NEA recognises the role of training and development in driving organisational productivity and growth. Our continued efforts in training and development ensure that employees will be equipped with the right skills and knowledge, to discharge their duties effectively and be able to meet future challenges. NEA’s Singapore Environment Institute conducts competency-based training to build a relevant, resourceful and resilient workforce.
The Job Competency Matrix (JCM) framework forms the foundation of NEA’s competency development and training. Under the framework, Skills Maps capture competencies needed for a job role, and Learning Intervention Matrices curate a list of recommended learning interventions for staff to plug competency gaps.
An annual Learning Needs Analysis is carried out to identify competency gaps and training, with 71 per cent of NEA workforce able to formulate their Departmental Learning Plans based on the JCM framework in FY2021.
Besides competency-based training, NEA also encourages our staff to embrace continuous learning for lifelong employability through our learning policy. Budget is also set aside for staff to attend personal development courses for improvement and innovation.
Embarking on Digital Learning
NEA embarked on a digital learning transformation journey since the pandemic in 2020. The use of digital tools for training has now become one of the mainstream approaches for training NEA’s workforce. A set of instructional strategies and tools were curated to support this new learning approach. Pre-reading resources were expanded, and digital toolbox introduced to cater to activity-based learning. The programmes were well-received and achieved overall satisfaction ratings of over 90 per cent.
In August 2021, NEA onboarded the Civil Service College’s LEARN multi-tenancy platform, which allows the hosting of NEA’s e-learning content accessible only to our staff. To date, staff can access over 60 new modules providing bite-size learning from their mobile devices. Beyond foundation modules covering the work of frontline departments and induction module to prep new hires, new topics developed include organisational competencies in finance, intellectual property, human resources, procurement, and investigation skills.
Caring for Staff’s Well-being
Guided by the Employee Engagement Framework, NEA supports staff's well-being through the pandemic with relevant and meaningful initiatives, to enable staff to continue contributing in a productive, committed and purposeful manner.