By Cheryl Lim
FOR assistant research coordinator Loh Suet Lan, age is nothing but a number.
At 58, the woman had bounced back from retirement and now works as an assistant research coordinator at Singapore General Hospital (SGH).
A former staff nurse at Bukit Batok Polyclinic, she retired in 2001 due to back problems.
Today, as she told my paper with pride, “regardless of age, we still have so much to give”.
She is among a growing brigade of active seniors who continue to be part of the labour force by choice.
As efficient and enthusiastic as any other staff member, these workers have flexible work schedules customised to their lifestyle needs.
Last Wednesday, SingHealth and Alexandra Hospital (AH) were given the first International Innovative Employer Awards by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), a United States-based non-profit organisation.
They are the only Asian winners among 10 who have been recognised as the most aged-friendly employers in the world.
The awards recognise their efforts to utilise valuable skills of senior citizens like Ms Loh.
Ms Loh said: “Nursing skills are very much in demand. When I had to retire, my employers didn’t want me to.”
Not one to sit still, she then took on freelance nursing jobs in private clinics.
She found her current SGH job through Silver Connection, an initiative by SingHealth which is dedicated to “job redesign and helping people take on meaningful roles”, said Ms Geraldine Lee, group HR director of SingHealth.
Through the programme, employees aged 50 and above – who constitute 18 per cent of its 14,000 staff – are reappointed with new job scopes with flexible work times.
An indication of its success is that 70 per cent of SingHealth staff past the retirement age of 62 continue to be employed.
Over at AH, senior staff benefit from the hospital’s Job Redesign Programme as well.
A participant of the programmeis patient-care associate Joseph Robert Roch, 57.
He was trained in three months to care for patients in a “50 per cent housekeeping, 50 per cent patient interaction” capacity two years ago.
He said: “I love the programme. It gives quality of life to a senior citizen.”
Working four days a week on a part-time basis, he finds the job fulfilling as he can give back to society and have “time to go to the library, do yoga and hang out with my church friends”.
Mr Gerard Ee, 59, the chairman of the Council for Third Age, was heartened by the AARP awards.
He told my paper: “This is all ahead of the Government’s planned 2012 law that requires companies to offer retired employees a chance to work beyond 62.”
He added: “We need to change people’s mindset about ageing. Elderly staff have so much to give because of their worldly experience – which is priceless.”