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Din Tai Fung, Deliveroo get pro-active in efforts to retain workers, build loyalty

SINGAPORE — In an industry where workers commonly work long hours and have “little benefits” and “leave days”, Mr Leroy Lin, a 23-year-old customer care associate at Din Tai Fung Singapore, is an exception.

Din Tai Fung is stepping up efforts to improve welfare benefits for its staff in the hopes of retaining talent.

Din Tai Fung is stepping up efforts to improve welfare benefits for its staff in the hopes of retaining talent.

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SINGAPORE — In an industry where workers commonly work long hours and have “little benefits” and “leave days”, Mr Leroy Lin, a 23-year-old customer care associate at Din Tai Fung Singapore, is an exception.

The Taiwanese, who has been working at the popular Chinese food chain for more than a year tending to customer queries and feedback, said: “My friends who are working in the same line would always ask me, ‘Why do you have so much leave?’.”

Since October last year, Din Tai Fung has switched to give its employees a five-day work week.

This was a change from them having to alternately work a five-day week and a six-day week.

With this, employees who serve in the frontline are now entitled to eight rest days a month compared with six before.

The restaurant chain is stepping up efforts to improve welfare benefits for its staff in the hopes of retaining talent.

The Ministry of Manpower’s third-quarter labour report last year showed that while there was less turnover activity across most sectors in the quarter, the average monthly resignation rate in the food-and-beverage (F&B) services sector remained higher than other industries, reflecting a greater reliance on non-permanent employees. The rate in the F&B industry stood at 3 per cent, higher than the total of 1.7 per cent.

In the same period, the average monthly recruitment rate was at 3.4 per cent for the F&B industry, higher than the total of 2.3 per cent.

Talking about the recent changes at his workplace, Mr Lin said that the extra days off are “extremely precious” and “useful”.

“With two extra days, we can plan short trips to Malaysia, for example, or just have another day to catch up with family and friends.”

Besides the extra rest days, Din Tai Fung Singapore’s employees may take their breaks at a newly set up staff lounge located on Orchard Road.

The 1,550sqf apartment in the shopping belt is a five-minute walk from Din Tai Fung branches at Paragon and Wisma Atria malls.

The apartment has shower facilities, “nap pods”, a kitchen pantry, a living room and a reading corner. It also comes with Wi-Fi and charging ports.

Two more lounges are set to open in April 2019, catering to employees based at the Din Tai Fung outlets located in the BreadTalk IHQ building at Tai Seng and Junction 8 mall in Bishan.

TRAINING IN A DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENT

Another company that has set out to improve the job satisfaction levels of its workers is food delivery company Deliveroo.

Its riders may now work in restaurants to better understand the efforts involved in preparing and packing the food.

In a bid to improve job satisfaction, Deliveroo riders can now work in restaurants to better understand the efforts involved in preparing and packing the food. Photo: DeliverooSG/Facebook

The programme, called Rider Bistro, lets Deliveroo riders spend up to three hours during lunch periods in participating restaurants to try their hand in front-of-house work, food packaging and food preparation.

Of its 6,000-strong fleet, 50 of its riders who are certified by the National Environment Agency qualify for the programme.

Mr Siddharth Shanker, Deliveroo’s general manager in Singapore, said: “The purpose of Rider Bistro was to improve engagement between restaurants and riders so that both parties could understand more about what each other needs to do.

“Riders can understand what it’s like to be at a restaurant and restaurants can understand the riders’ perspective and what it means for them to come and pick up food.”

He added that while such experiences were meant to increase engagement between riders and restaurants, they also contributed to better daily outcomes for riders, increasing their job satisfaction.

For instance, participating restaurants who were familiar with the Deliveroo riders could prepare their food faster or ask the riders to wait for their food in a more comfortable area.

For Mr Amri Mansur, who took part last December in the first trial of Rider Bistro with Guzman Y Gomez eatery — which sells Mexican food — the programme gave him another reason to stay with Deliveroo. He has been a rider with the firm for the past two years.

Mr Mansur, 37, said that while the flexible working hours had been a key reason he had stuck with Deliveroo, the programme gave him an opportunity to “meet new people and try more food”.

“I signed up because it would give me a new experience. It’s different because we get to work with hand-in-hand with other restaurants and understand the ways that they deal with peak-hour orders.”

Mr Shanker declined to reveal Deliveroo’s attrition rates, but said that the company is constantly working to ensure that its riders had a smooth experience.

“If their day-to-day experience improves, then more riders will stick around longer if there is job satisfaction. We just want to see if Riders Bistro is a programme that our riders enjoy.”

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