The 24/7 National Care Hotline, set up shortly after Singapore went into its Circuit Breaker lockdown in April 2020, received close to 28,000 calls within five months of its establishment. The Samaritans of Singapore similarly noted a 30% increase in calls to its suicide prevention hotline during the Circuit Breaker.

What were the measures taken to ease financial strain, support families and manage work demands, in order to relieve key stressors during the COVID-19 outbreak? Read the ETHOS article, Strengthening Mental Wellbeing in a Pandemic, to find out more.

Have you ever thought about how to design and evaluate policies and programmes? Join our workshop and learn how to use Behavioural Insights, Data Analytics and Cost-Benefit Analysis, develop a fundamental understanding of how these tools can be used at different stages of the policy process and identify ways to overcome the limitations of these tools.

Register here:

A Public Officer’s Toolkit for Designing & Evaluating Programmes (CRPDE10)

Let’s admit it – most of us have mixed feelings about our performance appraisals. On one hand, we are eager to receive feedback, yet we often do not know what to expect.

But what if we reframed our perspectives? Performance management chats are opportunities for us to address our weaknesses and celebrate our strengths! It doesn’t have to be a one-way conversation either – your valuable feedback could be a powerful catalyst for change in the organisation!

Are you apprehensive about receiving feedback? Do you find yourself feeling insecure and vulnerable, but at the same time recognise that feedback is important for career and personal development? Just as you would prefer a less anxiety-inducing feedback session with your supervisor, so would your staff!

How then can you, as a supervisor, provide honest feedback in a way that doesn’t cause fear, but may in fact produce joy?

Watch this video, Good Feedback is a Two-Way Conversation, to learn how you can shift from an authoritative mindset to a collaborative approach.

In this digital edition of ETHOS, we continue to explore issues related to sustainable urban development. How might our communities continue to be thriving places in which we live, work and play, in the face of looming climate challenges and resource constraints? Featuring: Livia Tan, Wong Mun Summ, Anupam Yog, and Peter Hawkins.

Find out more in the new issue of ETHOS Digital Edition.

Feedback is effective when the recipient is open and has not put up a feedback barrier. How do good coaches put their coachees at ease when discussing performance issues? We’ve got you covered with some tips for effective coaching.Interested to find out more?

Sign up for Coaching Skills for Authentic Conversations now, and learn how to develop a coaching mindset, develop your coaching abilities and apply your skills effectively during the next performance management chat.

Conflict is a fact of life – when each of us sees things differently, conflict becomes inevitable.
So how can we resolve our differences amicably when stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong?

Sign up for our Crucial Conversations Programmes – you’ll learn how to discuss performance issues with confidence; turning disagreement into dialogue for improved team efficiency, safety and staff morale.
For Officers: Crucial Conversations® Focused for Officers (CRCCO10)
For Managers: Crucial Conversations for People Managers (Signature Program) (CRCCM10)

Listening is one of the most important life skills we can possess. Not only is it useful for our personal lives, it is important at the workplace as well. Being an active listener allows us to open our minds to constructive feedback, and in so doing, enhance our work performance.

Sign up for the Art of Effective Listening for Support Officers to learn more about the importance of effective listening, identify your personal listening profile, overcome barriers to active listening through an arsenal of techniques and use effective feedback cues to respond appropriately.

It is said that comparison is the thief of joy, and yet, social comparisons are often the basis for fairness perceptions.

In this ETHOS article, Perceptions of Fairness, we aim to do a deep dive into the definitions of fairness and the importance of fairness when it comes to public policy, public engagement efforts as well as the impact on employee engagement and organisational development efforts.

As a liaison officer, you play an important role in maintaining Singapore's reputation and image, playing host to VVIPs and foreign guests. Hence, it is important to be aware of any cross-cultural sensitivities, and taboos and mannerisms to carry out your duties effectively.

Sign up for Protocol Workshop for Officers Sent on Liaison Duties (CRPWLO1), and you will learn how to practice appropriate business etiquette when dealing with international delegates, gain appreciation for cross-cultural differences, learn how to extend proper courtesies in greeting, receiving and sending guests off.

Keen to find out the best employee engagement practices from other agencies?

We conducted a series of interviews with agencies and pulled out insights on key areas of focus – Agile, Career & Professional Development, Leadership and Well-being. Read on to find out more here.

Season’s Greetings from all of us at CSC! Have you made your New Year Resolutions yet? As you usher in the new year, remember to keep the spark alive by learning and growing!

What will the weather be like tomorrow? Are HDB resale prices likely to drop anytime soon?

Learn how popular forecasting techniques have been used to predict trends in our hands-on workshop, Predictive Analytics Made Easy (with Excel) (CRPAME1), happening on 9 Jan 2023. Sign up today!

Why is integrity in the workplace so important? What conditions make it easier for fraud to occur? What practical approaches can you take to deal with ethical dilemmas?

Find out more in CSC-ISCA: Managing Ethical Dilemmas Involving Financial Irregularities For Public Finance Officers (CRICEFI).

As digital media becomes increasingly popular over the last decade, more Singaporeans are using these platforms to keep abreast with the latest news in Singapore and the world. As government officials, learn how to leverage the power of digital media to disseminate timely information, engage citizens effectively and shape the online discourse.

You will learn how to spot emerging trends in the digital environment, develop cost-effective digital communications strategies, manage online communities, curate engaging and relatable content and use data analytics tools to augment your digital communication efforts.

Register here:

- [Virtual Classroom] Digital Communications for Junior Officers (Sign up now! Register by 5 Jan!)

- [Virtual Classroom] Digital Communications for Middle Managers (Sign up now! Register by 1 Feb!)

Interested to level up your facilitation skills, especially to deal with complex issues? Then sign up for Cynefin and Complex facilitation (CRCCF10)!

You will learn about anthro-complexity and why complex problems require a different approach to facilitation. You will also learn how to use the Cynefin framework to facilitate decision-making in complex issues.

As a public communications and engagement officer, you play an integral role in shaping the public’s perception of the Singapore government, using powerful and compelling messages. To build public trust, we need to develop a robust multi-pronged communications strategy, disseminate information in a timely and sensitive manner and address the concerns of the citizens promptly.

Sign up for PaCE – Public Communications and Engagement Executive Programme today! You will learn about the good practices regarding effective government communication in 5 key areas – Strategic Communication, Research & Analysis, Media Messaging & Engagement, Marketing & Branding, and Engagement.

Upcoming runs available:
– 16-18 Jan
– 14-16 Feb
– 28-30 Mar

Experience for yourself the different scenarios you may encounter when embarking on a video analytics (VA) project and pick up some common tips that you can apply on your own VA project!

You will also learn what to look out for at the different stages of Video Analytics workflow. Sign up for Starting a Video Analytics (VA) Project: A Systematic Approach (CRVAP10) now.

We make New Year Resolutions every year, but how many of us keep them? Why do we find it hard to develop new habits and stick to them even though they may be beneficial for us?

In this symposium, renowned local and international behavioural change experts will discuss the psychology underpinning habit formation and how policymakers can influence the development of longer-term habits through behavioural nudges. Last call for registration – do register by 20 January!

(Please note that there has been a slight change in timing from the previous EDM.)

For Public Officers: Register here
For Government-affiliated Officers: Register here