Have you noticed how quickly you can clear immigration at Singapore’s airport, land checkpoints and cruise centres when travelling these days? We owe this gift of convenience to Jacqueline Chan and team, who have worked tirelessly to improve the automated lanes at the checkpoints.
But it is no mean feat to keep these gantries up and running! Work is fast-paced and expectations are high. With travellers coming in at all hours, Jacqueline who is Head, Clearance Lanes, Immigration & Checkpoints Programme Management Centre, and her team need to be on standby for any post-implementation incidents that could happen anytime of the day.
Such incidents can sometimes be puzzling to Jacqueline. For example, there were cases of people trying to leap over the gantries even before the gates opened. There were also travellers who could not figure out how to use the new technology.
“They put their passports on the screen instead of the scanner,” she exclaims. “It caught our attention and we wondered why our instructions were not clear!”
Be willing to ask and listen
These experiences have made Jacqueline particularly empathetic to others who are facing challenges. She is a firm believer that for any problem to be solved, you need to ask questions and listen.
By hearing the end-users out, she found out that travellers were placing their passports in the wrong place because they didn’t understand English. “We assumed it was a universal language, but it isn’t,” she remarks. The solution: “Use more visual aids instead of relying on text,” she says.
It also turned out that travellers trying to escape the gantries were uncomfortable being “trapped”. When the gates didn’t open and they had to recapture their biometrics, they panicked. To calm them down, officers needed to be able to explain clearly the steps to take.
True empathy overcomes defensiveness
Armed with these lessons from the field, when Jacqueline noticed one of her team members acting up, rather than jump to conclusions, she responded with empathy and asked him if anything was wrong.
It turned out that her colleague had a newborn on the way. He was overwhelmed by work and the impending responsibilities of fatherhood. He needed a listening ear, reassurance, and some reassignment of his workload.
This is why it’s also important to explain, she adds. “If people know why we are doing certain things, they are more likely to take the message well.”
Continuing the cycle of empathy
(Photo: HTX)
But what happens when Jacqueline gets frustrated herself and finds it hard to be empathetic? She jokes that when that happens, there’s nothing a sinful dessert can’t fix! On a more serious note though, she believes that demonstrating empathy takes effort and practice. In fact, it’s only more natural to her now because of the bosses she has met in the past.
“If we had problems at home and needed some time away from work to address them, they would step up and lend a hand at work during such periods,” she says. “When things went wrong, they didn’t blame us, but guided us and patiently explained why what we did might not have been correct.”
In her personal life, Jacqueline has also always been able to count on her loved ones for emotional support when things get tough.
“My family and friends might not be able to solve my problems, but they can make me happier just by listening to me,” she shares.
As a supervisor, Jacqueline wants to pay it forward and offer her teammates the same understanding she has received. She strives to support them through good times and bad—her favourite way is to celebrate their successes and show appreciation for them through meals.
Her tip to building a culture of empathy? “Remember that no one wants to be defensive. So as long as we explain the context and listen to them to understand their perspective, we can build a good working relationship!”