Workplace Fairness Act: The Hiring Records Singapore SMEs Should Start Keeping in 2026

If you want one answer before the detail: start keeping a written record of why each hire happened. For every role you fill, keep the job advertisement as published, the list of requirements you assessed against, the shortlist and the reason each shortlisted candidate was or was not selected. Four short documents per role. That is the core of Workplace Fairness Act hiring documentation, and it is the part most Singapore SMEs do not have today. Everything else in this article is refinement of that one habit.

What does the Workplace Fairness Act actually require from an SME?

The Act, passed in January 2025, makes it unlawful to make an adverse employment decision because of a protected characteristic. The protected list covers age, nationality, sex, marital status, pregnancy status, caregiving responsibilities, race, religion, language, disability and mental health conditions.

It applies to hiring, promotion, appraisal, training selection and dismissal. Job advertisements may not state or imply a preference on a protected characteristic, which ends the still-common habit of writing things like young and energetic team or Mandarin speaker preferred without a genuine business reason attached.

There is also a grievance handling requirement: employers must have a process for staff to raise concerns internally, and must not retaliate against someone who uses it. Smaller employers, under 25 staff, get a transition period on that specific requirement, but not on the discrimination rules themselves.

Commencement has been signalled for 2027 rather than fixed. Treat the date as moving and the content as settled. Confirm the final timing with MOM before you build anything expensive around it.

Why fix hiring paperwork now rather than when the Act starts?

Because the evidence has to exist before the complaint does. A fairness claim is argued over a decision you made months earlier. If the only record is a WhatsApp thread saying not suitable, you are reconstructing your reasoning from memory against a candidate who has their own version of the conversation. That is an expensive position regardless of who was right.

The second reason is timing. Most Singapore SMEs hire in January and February, after bonuses are paid and after Chinese New Year. If the documentation habit starts in December, it starts during your busiest recruitment month, which means it does not start. October and November are quiet on hiring. Build the template now, use it on the next two or three roles while the pressure is low, and the January intake runs on a process you have already tested.

Which hiring records should a Singapore SME keep?

Keep these five, per role:

• The job requirements, written before you advertise. Skills, experience, licences, physical or language requirements where the job genuinely needs them. Written first, so it cannot be accused of being written around a preferred candidate.
• The advertisement as published, with the date and the platform. Screenshot it. Job boards edit and expire listings, and you cannot defend wording you can no longer produce.
• The applicant log. Name, date received, source, and outcome at each stage. No commentary on personal attributes.
• The shortlist criteria and scores. Even a simple three-column sheet showing how each shortlisted person measured against the stated requirements.
• The rejection reason, in job-related language. Not enough years on the relevant system. Would not commit to shift work. Second candidate scored higher on the practical test.

Also fix your retention period. These records are personal data under the PDPA, so you cannot keep them forever by default. A defensible position is to retain unsuccessful applicant records for a stated period, commonly one to two years, then delete them on schedule. Write the period down, and make the deletion actually happen.

How do you clean up job advertisements without losing good hires?

Pull your last five advertisements and read them against the protected list. The problems are almost never malicious. They are inherited phrasing.

Replace preference with requirement, and attach the reason. Mandarin speaker preferred becomes able to serve Mandarin-speaking customers by phone, because roughly 60 percent of inbound calls are in Mandarin. Young and dynamic becomes comfortable working in a fast-changing environment with new tools. Singaporeans only becomes nothing at all, because work pass eligibility is handled at offer stage, not in the advertisement.

Where a genuine occupational requirement exists, it is allowed. The Act does not force you to hire someone who cannot do the job. It forces you to show that the requirement is about the job.

Do you need an HR system, or will a spreadsheet do?

For most SMEs under about 50 staff, a structured shared folder and one spreadsheet are enough, and they are enough because they are free and they get used. The structure matters more than the software: one folder per role, named with the date, containing the five records above.

An applicant tracking system earns its cost at roughly 10 or more hires a year, or where multiple managers interview independently and nobody can see the full picture. The value is not fancier screening. It is that the record is generated automatically as a by-product of the hiring process, instead of depending on a busy manager remembering to save a file. Budget guidance for a small team is typically in the low hundreds of dollars a month, so this is a real decision, not an obvious one.

If you already use a payroll or HR platform, check whether recruitment is bundled in and switched off. Many SMEs are paying for a module they have never opened.

What should you do in the next six weeks?

Three tasks, perhaps four hours in total. First, write a one-page hiring record template and save it where your hiring managers already work. Second, audit your last five job advertisements and rewrite the standing templates. Third, write down your applicant data retention period and put a recurring calendar reminder on the deletion.

If you have 25 or more employees, add a fourth: write a short grievance procedure that says who a complaint goes to, what happens next, and by when. One page is sufficient. A procedure that exists and is simple beats a policy document nobody reads.

None of this changes who you hire. It changes whether you can explain the choice a year later, calmly, with the paperwork in front of you.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Workplace Fairness Act apply to companies with fewer than 25 employees?

Yes, the anti-discrimination rules apply regardless of size. The separate requirement to operate a formal grievance handling process has a transition period for smaller employers. Small size is not an exemption from fair hiring, only a delay on one piece of the administration.

Can we still specify a language requirement in a job advertisement?

Yes, where the job genuinely needs it and the advertisement says why. The test is whether the requirement describes the work or the person. Tie it to a concrete duty, such as serving customers in that language, and keep the note explaining the business reason with the hiring record.

How long should we keep records for candidates we did not hire?

Long enough to defend the decision, and no longer. One to two years is a common position for Singapore SMEs. The important part is that the period is written down, applied consistently, and that the deletion is scheduled rather than theoretical, since PDPA expects you to stop holding personal data once the purpose has ended.