Toolkit on the Employability of Older PMEs The Programme and Partnership Development department from Tripartite Alliance for Fair & Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) collaborated with CABS to develop an online survey to measure and establish employers’ perceptions, mindsets and stereotypes that influence the hiring decisions of older Professionals, Managers & Executives (PMEs). 

Age-Inclusive Norms CABS engaged in a project with the Programme and Partnership Development department in TAFEP to analyse existing interview transcripts from earlier research project on age-inclusive norms. Methodologically rigorous qualitative analysis of these transcripts were conducted to identify key themes of age-inclusive norms, which was then used to validate against the framework that TAFEP had initially proposed. Based on the validation exercise, the age-inclusive norms framework was revised and published as an infographic supporting the TAFEP-Straits Times Roundtable Discussion feature on 28 Oct 2016.

Fair@Work Study Through an initial link-up via Temasek Polytechnic’s Career & Education Services Centre (CESC), students from the Diploma in Psychology Studies worked on a research project with the Communications and Events Management department in TAFEP. This project comes under the Fair@Work Promise campaign by TAFEP to promote fair and inclusive attitudes in the workplace. In this study, responses were obtained from TP in their final year of studies to understand the level of knowledge school leavers had with regards to fair employment practices, the expectations of school leavers on their first job, and whether the amount of diversity exposure influenced school leavers’ attitudes towards diversity in the workplace. The findings from this study was presented at the Conference for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices 2018, where Mrs Josephine Teo (Minister, Prime Minister Office, Second Minister for  Manpower and Home Affairs) was the guest of honour.

Our Tampines Hub, managed by People’s Association is Singapore’s first integrated hub for public services and community programs and facilities. To obtain a sense of Tampines resident’s experience with the hub and gather feedback on the services provided by the hub, CABS was engaged by People’s Association to develop a survey. Students from the Diploma in Psychology Studies interviewed various stakeholders from Our Tampines Hub on the services provided and information they would like to gather from Tampines residents. Volunteers of the hub were also interviewed to provide feedback on the survey. This project culminated to an online survey that attempts to capture Tampines Residents’ experience at Our Tampines Hub.

Over the years, CABS collaborated with the Institute for Infocomm Research on numerous projects. These interdisciplinary projects included investigating the social dynamics of inter-generation game play, and usability issues of employing augmented reality and artificial intelligence for remote training purposes, where knowledge in the behavioural and social sciences domain were applied to domain areas such as engineering and computer science. The findings from these studies were presented in both local and international conferences.

CABS works actively with the Behavioural Insights Collaboratory within Temasek Polytechnic to conduct behavioural insights (BI) projects, in which behavioural science theories are applied to nudge behaviours on campus. The projects range from increasing students’ response rates on surveys, to getting students to exhibit pro-social behaviours in public spaces, to nudging students towards a healthier lifestyle. The findings from these BI projects not only leads to increase work productivity and the quality of service delivery, but also makes the campus a better place to work and study.

Other than conducting internal BI projects with the Behavioural Insights Collaboratory, CABS also actively works with other external organizations on BI projects. Some of these projects involved nudging safer pedestrian behaviours, encouraging tray return behaviours, and even educating individuals from low-income families to recognize common sales tactics that leads to impulse purchases.

In collaboration with the Architecture Department of the Land Transport Authority (LTA), CABS conducted a user research study aimed to identify user information requirements for wayfinding, with the purpose of uncovering user perceptions and issues for future improvements to MRT station usability and design for older adult commuters. Extensive literature review, expert review, interviews and journey shadowing sessions were carried out with both international and local wayfinding planners, as well as users of the public transport system to investigate how inclusive design principles can be applied to improve wayfinding and information accessibility for users of different abilities level. The project led to the development of a systematic Inclusive Wayfinding Assessment Tool (IWA) which helps to facilitate and raise awareness for inclusive wayfinding in the context of Singapore’s Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system.

CABS collaborated with Changi General Hospital (CGH) to examine falls prevention in hospital wards. By studying the learning needs of older patients, the project sought to bridge the communication gap between nursing staff and patient/caregiver, so as to promote understanding of fall precautions to minimise falls. This collaboration led to the development of a Patient Family Education tool to provide a common reference for nursing staff and patients/caregivers, and Behavioural Insights (BI) strategies were incorporated within this tool to nudge staff and patients/caregivers’ behaviours. Findings from the collaboration were also used by CGH to implement a series of Fall Safety Initiatives in 2014 to facilitate discussions between nursing staff and patient/caregiver.