Lay Tat Ong

Served as an Assistant and a Senior Assistant Director (Research and Statistics) in Ministry of Manpower from 2000-2019. I possess excellent organizational skills with an ability to think proactively and prioritize work in great details. This skill set enabled me to manage a team of  30 permanent staff and 70 temporary contract workers for survey fieldwork operations. Some of the surveys I managed involved huge sample sizes like the Annual Labour Force Survey   (33,000 households) and Quarterly Labour Market Survey (14,000 companies).  The surveys were completed on scheduled deadlines.  

Managing such mega survey operations would require excellent communication skills to effectively manage internal and external stakeholders’ engagement through survey briefings and meetings. This attests to my abilities to build strong working relationships across levels and functions, demographic profiles, and cultures to influence and achieve best outcomes out of a diverse team.

In addition, I spent about 5 years as a lecturer in Nanyang Polytechnic. As a lecturer, I developed skills in teaching, developing curriculums and building relations with students, lecturers, and parents in a teaching environment. 

Since, my retirement from Ministry of Manpower in 2019, I have worked in 4 social organisations – 3 churches (St Georges Church, And Mo Kio Methodist Church and Fairfield Methodist Church) and at Alexandra Hospital as Advanced Care Senior Executive. Hence, I have working knowledge in the social and/or health sector.

I also possess strong logical thinking and analysing skills to provide clear and executable solutions;  Resourceful, sound thinker with broad vision; Able to converse in Hokkien and basic Mandarin; with competencies on MS Office and also open to learn new software and systems. 

Employment Experience

Fairfield Methodist Church

Pastoral Team Member (Pastoral Care)

• Execute an effective system of providing pastoral care to members and worshippers
• Provide spiritual support to the bereaved, sick and troubled.
• Pastoral visitation and co-ordination of homebound, hospitalisation, wakes and funerals.
• Recruit and train volunteer to provide ministry of caring.
• Co-ordinate the necessary communication channels and records to ensure pastoral needs are known
• Assist the pastors in organising and administration of Baptism and Membership Class. 
• Maintain records of newcomers and follow-up with them on their interests of church programmes and, if needed, to assist them to settle into the church.  

Alexandra Hospital                                                               Jul 2021 – Mar 2022

Senior Administrative Executive 

Advance Care Planning (ACP)

• Responsible for managing the ACP prgramme in Alexandra Hospital
• Ensure timely uploading of completed ACP form in National ACP IT System 
• Co-ordinate ACP training workshops for ACP Champions across departments
• Work with Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) on funding matters, including submission of KPIs and quarterly claims
• Provide monthly progress report to ACP workgroup and Senior Management

Ang Mo Kio Methodist Church                                            Jul 2020 – Jun 2021 

Pastoral Team Member

Oversees the church’s:

Cell Ministry 

• Provide leadership and pastoral support to 11 Zonal Cell Leaders and over 100 cell leaders and assistant cell leaders
• Conduct training for cell and potential cell leaders 
• Develop training curriculum for cell leaders

Family Life Ministries 

• Organised Webinar talks – example ‘Parenting in Digital Age’; and ‘Writing Will”. And, onsite training, for example ‘Effective Communication with Teenagers’. 
• Supported the Men’s and Single Ministry
• Conducted home visits to Seniors 

St George’s Church                                                  Sep 2019 to Jan 2020

Administrative Manager                                                     

Oversees church administration including maintenace of property, day to day church office operations, human resource management, administration of courses (eg administering of Moore’s College programmes, Alpa courses, etc), supporting the clergy in wedding, funeral amd memorial services. 

Key Accomplishments:

During my short stint in the church:

• Enhanced physical security of the church (i.e. introducing new security policies and physical access to church office)
• Implemented Local Area network for the church office
• Improve Wifi connectivity of the church surrounding buildings
• Standardise the HR employment terms and conditions
• Introduce measures to meet Personal Data Protection Act requirem

Ministry of Manpower

Senior Assistant Director, Data Collection                        April 2008 – Feb 2019 

Assistant Director, Data Collection                                    April 2002 – Mar 2008

Analyst (Concurrently)                                                        April 2005 – Mar 2010

Oversee the data collection of households (2002-2005) and establishments (2003 – 2019):

• Managed a team of 30 permanent and 70 temporary interviewers
• Conducted large scale national and topical surveys
• June Household Survey (33,000) and Quarterly Household (7,500); and 
• Quarterly Establishment Survey (4,000), Annual Wage Change (6,000), Occupation Wages Survey (4,200) and Quarterly Retrenchment Survey (14,000)
• Supervised the development of training materials on Survey Concepts and Definitions
• Conducted training on Standard Classifications of Occupation and Industry.
• Supervised the development of data validation rules for establishment surveys
• Streamlined survey collection processes
• Monitored service standards

Key Accomplishments:

• Developed new questionnaires and expanded existing questionnaires to gather more manpower related data for policy making
• Supported and operationised online survey platform
• Operationised Call Management System
• Worked with vendor to create an e-learning platform - enabling trainees to learn at own pace, time, and place 
• Analysed and wrote Manpower Related Reports (e.g. on Monthly Labour Market Situation, Establishment Supported Training, Labour Cost, Quality Workplace, Conditions on Employment, Informal Economy)
• Special Duty: Assisted in overseeing three centres for the initial launch of the Workfare Income Supplement

Senior Manager, Manpower Planning, Ministry of Manpower    May 2000-Mar 2002  

• Headed the industry unit
• Built relationships with industries 
• Gathered industry feedback on manpower demands and skill needs for manpower policy making and planning

Key Accomplishments:

• Conducted over 200 company visits in various industries
• Instrumental in the publication of the inaugural Employment Trends and Outlook, 2001, to facilitate employment search.
• Co-ordinated strategic planning activities across government organisations for specific causes, such as sectorial manpower planning and to understand the skill needs in demand

Nanyang Polytechnic                                        Oct 1995 – April 2000

Lecturer  

• Lectured in Economics, Statistics and Market Research

Key Accomplishments:

• Assisted in setting up a Client Based Market Research Unit
• Assisted in the development and launch of two diploma programmes – Sports Management and Community Services Management

Singapore Sports Council                                      Mar 1991 - Sep 1995

Assistant Director, Research                                           April 1993- Sep 1995

Senior Research Officer                                                   Mar 1991-Mar 1993

• Managed and co-ordinated research activities from data collection to report writing
• Effectively and efficiently utilized and developed appropriate resources to meet both short- and long-term needs of the Research Section in Singapore Sports Council
• Served as member of Sports Council Senior Management

Key Accomplishments:

• Successfully conducted the National Sports Participation Survey, 1993
• Successfully managed the Media Centre for SEA Games 1993.   

Housing Development Board                                   Aug 1988 - Feb1991

Community Development Officer       

• Worked closely with the grassroots organisation such as the Residents’ Committees and Constituency Consultative Committees to promote community relations and implement community projects
• Explained relevant government policy to heart landers

Chop Aik Huat                                                          Aug 1986 - Jul 1988

Retail Executive

• Assisted in the business operations of family car parts business.

Education:

• Bachelor of Science, Economics, University of Oregon (1983-86)
• GCE ‘A’ Level, Anglo-Chinese Junior College (1978-1979)
• GCE ‘O’ Level Anglo-Chinese Secondary School (1974-1977)

Church Leadership Experience 

• Oversee the Cell Group and Family Life Ministry, Ang Mo Kio Methodist Church, Jul 20 – Jun 21
• Administrative Manager in St Georges Church, Sep 19 – Jan 2020
• Care Leader, Chen Su Lan Children’s Methodist Home, Dec 2018-Present
• Mentor to young adults, Barker Road Methodist Church, 2019-Present
• Led inter-generation bible study for the past two decades
• Served in the Barker Road Small Group Committee in the early 2000s
• Pioneered an outreach programme in Oldham Hall Hostel, 1987-88
• TRAC (National) MYF Conference Member, 1981-82
• Barker Road Methodist Church MYF President, 1979-80