Shifting towards Collective Skills and Competency-based Leadership Development in the Post Pandemic Era1 AIM: A for analytical and intellectual capacity, I for influence and collaboration and M motivation for excellence.continuity and keep the workforce safe during the pandemic. The SafeEntry registration, a national digital check-in system was developed to log visits by individuals to venues providing essential services, as well the employees in those venues (SafeEntry, 2020). During the Circuit Breaker, most essential businesses, such as supermarkets, clinics, and retail outlets, adopted the SafeEntry system. To ensure smooth implementation, relevant ministries worked with operators of premises to deploy the SafeEntry system in wider communities including schools, workplaces, healthcare facilities, shopping malls and hotels (Lee, Lee and Liu, 2021). The officers as developers of the apps were able to engage and educate businesses to troubleshoot and adopt the apps within the very short timeframe. In addition, a suite of technology solutions under the “‘Stay Healthy, Go Digital!” programme developed by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), along with Enterprise Singapore (ESG), enable SMEs and businesses to quickly set up remote working, visitor management, bill and pay online, and sell online. SGTech, a trade association in the tech industry, also rallied companies in the industry to put together a Digital Solutions Directory for businesses. SMEs can access online courses and webinars to upgrade their workers’ skills and receive cost-free digital consultancy from experts on best practices for crisis management (Lee, Lee and Liu, 2021). Efforts to build up the public sector’s digital capabilities and digital services had paid off during the pandemic as Singapore was able to contain the spread by enabling remote work and study. Being one of the countries with the lowest fatality rate in the world, at less than 0.1 per cent, compared with the average of about 1 per cent worldwide, Singapore has demonstrated resilience, strategic agility, and entrepreneurship in the context of the fight against COVID-19 (Teo, 2023; Liu et. al., 2020).The Covid-19 pandemic has brought significant changes to workplaces around the world - and accelerated many trends, particularly around technology. The pandemic has accelerated the levels of digitisation in workplaces across all sectors including the public sector to meet stricter health rules and reduce physical interactions. The changing technologies and new ways of working were disrupting jobs and the skillsets required. Due to digital acceleration, customer demands are also changing. For industries to stay competitive and figuring how to introduce technologies into the workplace, they will need to upskill and reskill their employees with digital skills and capabilities to achieve the company’s goals. Skill-based development increases efficiency and makes the workforce more agile to adapt to evolving Singapore market trends. Recognising the need for the public sector leaders to dialogue and work closely with industry leaders to transform their workforce, the GovTech Digital Academy was also launched in 2021 to deepen ICT skills and groom future-ready digital leaders and public officers to be well-versed in the current and future technology landscape to lead digital transformation in their respective agencies and better support industries in digitisation (Digital Academy, 2022). Equipping C-suite public sector leaders with deeper ICT skills will also enable consolidation of resources from different departments within an organisation to drive digital transformation. The pandemic has hastened industry transformation and demand soars for digital skills in all sectors. Digital technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT) and cloud computing are bringing about a massive shift in the world of work (World Economic Forum, 2022). With more emphasis on digital skills and experiences, paper qualifications which are used to gauge a candidate’s ability might no longer carries high weightage in the selection process. It might also be time for the Singapore public service to consider shifting towards skills-based recruitment criteria to encompass a diverse and inclusive pool of talents. Mid-career switchers who wished to join the leadership schemes in the public service, without degree qualifications but with extensive working experience and skillsets that match the requirements of the organisations should also be highly considered. Employability skills will be beyond ‘soft skills’ such as communication, collaboration, critical thinking and emotional intelligence and increasingly centred around using digital technologies at work. One key lesson that was derived from the pandemic was the importance of the workforce being agile and equipped with 137
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