Your questions on senior workers answered
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What are the different profiles of senior workers that employers encounter today?
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In which roles and sectors do senior workers deliver the most impact?
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How can employers redesign work arrangements to engage senior talent effectively?
Employers are facing the same challenge every start of the new year: how to plan for talent shortages and constant change. And for businesses in Singapore, the question is no longer just who to hire, it’s about who can make an impact.
This requires a shift in thinking, and senior workers are emerging as a solution.
More companies are discovering the value of experienced senior workers — professionals aged 60 and above with decades of knowledge and experience under their belt.
But senior workers are not a homogenous group with the same needs or aspirations. Speaking at a recent engagement, Desmond Tan, Deputy Secretary General of NTUC and Senior Minister of State in the Prime Minister Office, highlighted three broad profiles of senior workers that employers are increasingly encountering today:
- Those who wish to continue working for as long as they are healthy
- Those who want to slow down and contribute meaningfully with greater flexibility
- Those who face challenges re-entering the workforce after job loss and require more targeted support
For employers, this distinction matters. It underscores why a one-size-fits-all approach to hiring no longer works, and why flexibility, thoughtful job design, and inclusive workforce planning are becoming critical to how businesses engage senior talent.
Senior talent can deliver business value too
Senior workers bring more than experience on paper. They bring judgement, resilience, and stability — qualities that are difficult to replace, especially during periods of transformation.
“Across Singapore and the wider APAC region, many employers are trying to do several difficult things at once,” says Vivian Tay, Director, Consumer Asia Sales & Marketing at Ethos BeathChapman. “They are preserving deep industry knowledge, driving business transformation, and keeping up with rapid AI, digital and market shifts, all against a backdrop of geopolitical and policy uncertainty.”
“This is where senior talent can make a very real difference. They bring depth of experience, sound judgment, and a level of resilience that is hard to replace,” she explains. “In my experience, they are less focused on titles or fast promotions, and more motivated by meaningful contribution, mentoring others, and maintaining a sense of purpose and self-worth.”
When placed into the right roles, senior workers can shorten learning curves, stabilise teams, and reduce risk — particularly in leadership, advisory, or specialist positions.
Roles where senior talent shine
Rather than traditional full-time roles, senior workers tend to thrive in positions where judgement, context, and stakeholder management matter more than speed alone.
“We consistently see strong impact in areas such as advisory and governance roles, compliance, operations excellence, client relationship management, mentoring, training, and project-based assignments,” says Vivian.
Employers are increasingly engaging senior professionals as:
- Part-time or fractional functional leads and advisors
- Project or transformation consultants
- Coaches and mentors supporting succession-ready leaders
- Interim managers during leadership or business transitions
“Flexible work arrangements, such as reduced hours, work-from-anywhere setups, or fixed-term contracts, work particularly well,” she adds. “These models allow companies to tap critical expertise while respecting the lifestyle preferences of senior professionals. When done well, it is genuinely a win-win arrangement.”
How employers are hiring senior talent differently
Some employers are already rethinking how roles are designed to attract and retain senior workers, and they’re seeing positive outcomes.
At Mandai Rainforest Resort by Banyan Tree, senior workers are hired through a hobby-based recruitment approach that aligns work with personal interests.
“The rationale is rooted in the belief that senior workers are more engaged and productive when their professional roles align with their personal passions,” says Mr Glen Cook, General Manager of Mandai Rainforest Resort by Banyan Tree.
By shifting away from traditional job descriptions, the resort positions work as an extension of a senior’s lifestyle and interests, making continued employment more attractive and purposeful. This approach has helped Mandai address manpower shortages while strengthening workforce diversity.
“Our seniors provide authentic, high-quality engagement with guests, sharing knowledge that feels personal rather than scripted,” Glen explains. “It also fosters a multi-generational environment where the soft skills and life experience of seniors complement the technical agility of younger staff.”
How senior talent is driving real impact
Beyond hospitality and traditional corporate roles, senior workers are playing critical roles across SMEs, social services, and corporate sectors. At The Courage Chapter, senior professionals — known as “Reternees” — are helping organisations tap deep experience while staying flexible and engaged.
“Reternees increasingly contribute as strategic stabilisers, capability builders, and cultural anchors,” says Kai Ning, co-founder of The Courage Chapter.
“Across sectors, they function as cross-functional problem solvers who resolve escalations early, stabilise teams during transformation, and act as bridges between strategy and execution — especially where ambiguity is high.”
One key way Reternees add value is through mentorship and informal capability transfer.
“They raise standards through day-to-day coaching, accelerate learning curves for younger teams, and strengthen psychological safety,” Kai Ning explains. “Often, younger colleagues will turn to our Reternees because they’re not ‘reporting’ to them, sharing challenges safely, which improves team performance and retention.”
Senior workers also contribute as specialists, advisors, and “fixers.” Many take on fractional or project-based roles, advisory positions, or time-bound engagements where they diagnose issues, build systems, train successors, and exit after outcomes are delivered.
“This allows organisations to pay for outcomes and impact, not tenure,” Kai Ning notes.
The impact of Reternees is tangible across both social and corporate sectors. According to The Courage Chapter Community, Reternees are contributing in ways that go beyond traditional employment:
- Social sector: Reternees have supported charities in fundraising, strategic HR, finance, programme management, centre management, digital transformation, and customer experience. Several short-term projects have even led to permanent or longer-term roles, often in broader responsibilities than initially anticipated.
- Corporate sector: Reternees have taken on projects in communications, digital transformation, audit and compliance, HR, leadership coaching, procurement, and marketing.
One Reternee reflects on their experience returning to work: “I could sustain the momentum of contribution in a structured work environment, stay at pace with industry requirements, and have a safe harbour to engage intellectually with fellow colleagues. I benefited from adapting to a startup environment, working remotely and flexibly, learning influencing skills without authority, building resilience, and even setting up my own advisory practice in the future.”
PTRG: The enabler behind the shift
While employers are increasingly recognising the value of senior workers, translating intent into action can be challenging.
This is where the new Part-Time Re-Employment Grant (PTRG) plays a supporting role. It provides up to $125,000 to employers who offer part-time re-employment, flexible work arrangements (FWAs) and structured career planning (SCP) to senior workers.
“From an employer’s perspective, the refreshed PTRG helps lower both the psychological and financial barriers to engaging senior talent,” says Vivian.
She explains that while many organisations see the value of experienced professionals, they often struggle with role redesign, flexible arrangements, or part-time structures.
“PTRG helps bridge that gap by encouraging employers to move from good intentions to practical action — whether that means reshaping roles, piloting flexible work models, or rethinking how productivity is measured beyond the traditional full-time setup.”
More importantly, she adds, PTRG reinforces that age-inclusive hiring is “not a short-term fix, but a strategic response to Singapore’s long-term realities.”
What employers can do now
For employers looking to act, the starting point is mindset and design. Rather than defaulting to traditional full-time roles, employers can begin by rethinking how work is structured and supported.
Employers can start by:
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Redesigning roles around outcomes, not hours
As Vivian puts it: “Shift the focus to deliverables and impact rather than time spent. This immediately opens up more opportunities for senior professionals to contribute meaningfully.”
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Creating flexible engagement models
Vivian also recommends introducing part-time, project-based or advisory roles that align with senior workers’ strengths and preferences. These models allow employers to tap on critical expertise while offering flexibility that works for both parties.
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Using senior workers intentionally for capability transfer
Another suggestion by Vivan is to pair experienced professionals with mid-career or high-potential employees to accelerate learning, strengthen succession, and retain institutional knowledge.
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Redesigning work by tasks, not job titles
From The Courage Chapter’s experience, Kai Ning emphasises separating judgement-heavy tasks from execution-heavy ones. “Allocate Reternees to decision-making, integration, and coaching work, and turn overqualification on its head through skills-based hiring,” she says.
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Investing in flexibility infrastructure
Finally, Glen from Mandai Rainforest Resort encourages employers to use tools such as AI-enabled scheduling to make flexible work seamless. “Businesses should also commit to active job redesign by fractionalising roles into manageable task bundles and removing high-stress or physically demanding elements that may deter senior workers.”
Why 2026 is the year to start hiring senior talent
As employers plan for the year ahead, one thing is becoming clear: senior workers are not a temporary solution to short-term labour gaps.
Instead, they are stabilisers in uncertain times, mentors in multi-generational teams, and strategic contributors in an age of rapid change. And the key to unlocking the full value of senior workers? Structured pathways. Flexible role design. And outcome-based engagement. So, hire senior workers for the experience they can contribute to you
For employers willing to rethink who they hire — and how — senior workers may just be the strategic hire they have been overlooking all along.
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