Breathing new life into long-established businesses and strengthening the workforce
Singapore is moving into a new normal where COVID-19 is endemic, businesses have pivoted and people have adapted to the new way of life. Consumers are increasingly conscious about general health, cleanliness and keeping their loved ones safe.
Seeing a gap in the market in early 2019, Mothercare had a vision to improve the retail experience for parents, redesigning the store into an experiential hub. Sparkle Clean, an in-store stroller and baby gear cleaning service was established in Mothercare’s first experience store concept at HarbourFront Centre.
“Baby equipment cleaning can be a vexing and time-consuming chore which most parents don’t perform often enough. Sparkle Clean understands that there are more than enough things to worry about when it comes to your children. Among those, Safety & Health are a top priority.” said Pang Fu Wei, Group Managing Director of Fun Wei Ventures Pte. Ltd, the holding company for Sparkle Clean.
Sparkle Clean is the brainchild of Pang Fu Wei, a startup that was spun out of another business – Mothercare. With the assistance from NTUC’s Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) hiring initiative, employees underwent training and salary support to help rank-and-file (RnF) workers reskill to take on new jobs in different sectors. e2i and the group were connected through NTUC U SME, in late 2016 and have been working together since 2017.
Attracting new talent and strengthening the workforce
As with many local SMEs, the hiring and retention of talent is one of the biggest challenges which Fun Wei Ventures face, given the limited labour pool in Singapore. This has been further exacerbated by the increasing restrictions on foreign workers, rising career aspirations of Singaporeans, and competitive hiring by MNCs which are able to offer more attractive packages.
The e2i initiative helped the company to expand their hiring parameters beyond the usual candidates, thereby widening the pool of job seekers to consider. The initiative also aided the company to take on a different and broader approach to hiring, allowing them to consider individuals who may not necessarily have the exact technical skills and qualifications for the job, but possess the softer, functional skills for the position, and the right cultural fit for the company.
Pang Fu Wei adds: “Our experience with e2i has been positive so far. With the funding support, we are more receptive to taking in job seekers from different industries, are able to dedicate more time to OJTs, and have benefited from the diverse experience which these candidates bring from their previous roles.”
One such employee that has benefited from the e2i hiring programme is Lloyd Lam Cheng, a Business Development Manager, who joined the company for over a year. He made a mid-career switch, from a career in financial planning, as a consultant for Tokio Marine Life Insurance Singapore. e2i’s hiring programme includes training that is focused on equipping Lloyd with the technical skill sets and knowledge relevant to the retail sector and for the role which he was hired for. It also helped address any existing skills-gap and supported his transition into the retail workforce.
“I wanted to try something different, and was very intrigued by the fact that I was able to do something that challenged me and allowed me to grow at the same time. I am not a very creative person, but one of the training that I found useful was the Adobe Illustrator Course that I attended. It really opened me up to a lot more opportunities that I didn’t know were within my reach. Another notable training was the Search Engine Optimization course I attended. It was something I wanted to explore for a long time but never had the chance.” Said Lloyd Lam Cheng, Business Development Manager, Fun Wei Ventures.
Scaling up and expanding the business
The hiring initiative under e2i has been well received by Fun Wei Ventures’ employees who are grateful that the company is helping them pick up new skills for their new roles. This programme has also allowed the company to widen their pool of potential hiring candidates to include those who do not have prior experience in the industry. This ultimately helps with the retention and overall job satisfaction of their staff. The labour market has been quite tight for frontline jobs, and this broader approach to recruitment has allowed the business to scale up and expand.
In 2021, Sparkle Clean opened their second outlet in Mothercare’s latest experience store at Paragon Shopping Centre, and has plans to expand internationally to Malaysia by the end of the year. Since launch, Sparkle Clean has cleaned over 4000 strollers, car seats, and other baby gear – this amounts to 333 days’ worth of time saved for parents. The company has also achieved a 5 star google rating with over 300 reviews by happy customers.
The Company is currently in the midst of conducting their fourth hiring initiative, and had completed 3 months training for their third hire under e2i for Sales and Cleaning Specialist.
For more information on Sparkle Clean, please visit https://sparkleclean.sg/
