Engaging Employees and the Community

MDA values its engagement with its people and the community, as it effects its regulatory and promotional roles.

Guided by its core values of integrity, professionalism, care and respect and innovativeness, MDA strives to uphold firm principles and standards and instil pride and a sense of belonging among its employees.

Engagement through social media
Engaging our netizens through social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, has resulted in a lively exchange of views and updates of MDA’s initiatives and policies that concern the man-in-the-street.

In reaching out to netizens, MDA also invited its Facebook fans to MDA hosted events, starting with A Day with the Classifier in November 2011. The Facebook page now has close to 1500 fans.

MDA’s YouTube channel contains latest updates of local content across TV, film, music, games and animation, providing a showcase of Singapore’s best.

Employee engagement
MDA values employee engagement and this was further strengthened with several initiatives introduced in 2011.

MDA continued to focus on creating more open dialogue between staff and management, resulting in a more informed environment on MDA corporate policies and initiatives. On a more personal level, iTalk sessions were introduced where staff can meet members of the senior management face-to-face.

In 2011, MDA also introduced One Learning Hour, a platform for different divisions to showcase their work to the rest of their colleagues. It provides an opportunity for knowledge sharing and offers officers a more holistic view of MDA’s varied roles.

Caring for the community
Since 2009, MDA has given to communities through Care Connexion, a volunteer group formed by its staff. Partnering non-profit and other organisations, Care Connexion focuses on a range of activities involving the elderly, underprivileged youth and children, animal welfare and the environment.

The goal is to connect its people with the community and make a positive difference. Between 2009 and 2011, MDA participated in over 2,160 hours of community service activities.

 

Responsibility towards the environment
MDA also strives to be an environmentally-friendly agency and does its part towards protection of the environment. MDA received the Green Office Label Certification in 2010 and was recently recertified in May 2012.

MDA encourages its employees to go green in everyday activities. These include providing recycling bins for paper, plastic and cups in the office, encouraging staff to print on both sides of papers and replacing disposable paper cups with reusable mugs at drink dispensers. MDA also encourages vendors to propose environmentally-friendly materials in tenders such as for office housekeeping.

Promoting work-life integration
As part of MDA’s effort in promoting work-life balance, MDA introduced a telecommuting scheme which allows staff to work outside of the office up to twice a month.

This, in addition to the flexible work arrangement scheme, work-life talks and outings, has placed MDA second in a recent Public Service Division survey on the supportiveness of a flexible work-life culture out of 43 participating statutory boards.

Delivering the service promise
MDA values the quality of work in the various roles it plays and continually strives for business excellence. Efforts put in place to disseminate knowledge, engage customers and work with suppliers and partners have enabled MDA to renew its Singapore Quality Class (SQC) certification in August 2011.

Key to a smooth-running organisation that improves its processes over time is the disseminating of knowledge and gathering of feedback. To this end, MDA held regular dialogues and networking sessions, participated in overseas missions and study missions, and also gathered information from consultative committees.

MDA also worked closely with its suppliers and partners by providing training on MDA’s standard operating procedures to suppliers, through visits to industry partners and with joint planning and consultation to help the industry to grow.

At MDA, there is a focus on engaging customers to understand their needs. These needs are then incorporated into the design of the system, processes and offerings. A comprehensive customer relationship management (CRM) system is in place to collate and analyse various sources of customer feedback.

MDA also actively engaged its stakeholders to ensure that its policies are relevant and pro-enterprise. During the year of review, MDA provided a range of e-services such as online submission of G and PG-rated video titles by video distributors as part of its co-classification initiative.