Workpass Portal Delegation
Bridging policy and practice for Singapore's aging society
I designed Singapore's first digital delegation system for elderly employers, enabling thousands of families to manage their helper permits independently.
Research findings influenced policy and informed on National Digital Identity's delegation approach, demonstrating how design research can reshape policy to better serve citizens.
Role
Lead designer & researcher
Company
GovTech, Ministry of Manpower Singapore
Team
A team of 2 business analysts and 5+ developers
Timeline
2018 – 3 months
Tags
Interaction design, Service design, Policy/ops strategy
The policy-reality gap
"You would not expect a 90-year-old to have a SingPass or use a computer"
— The Straits Times Forum
Singapore's Workpass portal required employers to renew foreign domestic workers' (helpers) permits digitally. But as our population aged, thousands of legal employers—often in their 80s and 90s—couldn't navigate these systems.
Their adult children (sponsors) were already managing everything: choosing helpers, handling onboarding, coordinating with embassies. Yet policy required the elderly employer's authorisation and physical presence for key transactions.
My challenge
Design a delegation feature that works within current legal constraints while building the case for longer-term policy change.
A system of interconnected stakeholders
This wasn't a simple two-sided transaction. Through 12 in-depth interviews of sponsors, I learnt that the delegation feature had to work within a complex ecosystem where sponsors mediated between elderly employers, helpers, embassies, employment agencies, and MOM transactions—each with different needs and constraints.
Insights on caregiving relationships and behaviours
The research also revealed how caregiving relationships manifest in reality.
Sponsors already were the employers in every practical sense: They chose and onboarded the helper, managed payments, handled all administrative coordination. But policy still required the legal employer for: physical presence at embassy appointments, signatures on declaration forms, identity verification (through Singpass) for digital transactions.
Sponsors are responsible for the helper's journey at every step of the way–from recruitment, to onboarding and daily matters. Helpers take on caregiving duties independently.
"Why can't you just let the sponsor be the employer?"
— Frustrated sponsor during research
This wasn't a usability problem that could be solved with a platform design approach. This was a policy-design misalignment affecting thousands of families.
Designing at two levels
The real solution required policy change—but policy moves slowly, for good reasons (accountability, safeguards). Families were struggling now.
My revised challenge
How do we meaningfully support sponsors within current constraints, while documenting evidence to inform future policy reform?
Tactical: a delegation feature that works today—Enabling sponsors to transact on behalf of employers within existing legal framework
Strategic: documentation for tomorrow—Research findings presented to MOM's senior leadership and National Digital Identity team to inform SingPass delegation feature and future policy discussions
Building shared understanding across functions
Throughout the process, I collaborated closely with processing officers and the legal team to understand the current situation and address their concerns. Building shared understanding and ownership across operations and legal was essential—the solution needed to work for officers verifying transactions and satisfy legal requirements, not just serve employers and sponsors.
Key considerations across teams
Operations
How will delegation affect processing workflows? What verification steps do officers need? How do we prevent fraud while maintaining usability?
Legal
What creates liability issues? How do we maintain clear role distinctions? What happens if the employer disputes a transaction?
This collaboration meant our designs weren't just user-friendly—they were implementable within government constraints and legally sound.
Service design across touchpoints
We weren't designing a portal feature. We were designing an end-to-end service spanning:
Physical mail (renewal reminder letters)
Paper forms (declaration requiring employer signature)
Digital portal (sponsor login and transactions)
Journey map of renewal process
Sponsors interact with this system once a year—they're not power users. The experience needs to work seamlessly across all touchpoints, or they get stuck and risk permit expiration with serious consequences for their helper.
Testing in context
In usability testing, I handed sponsors an envelope with the renewal reminder—exactly as they would receive it—and observed:
Did they notice the declaration form inside?
Did they understand it needed the employer's signature?
Could they complete the online renewal independently?
What happened when they got confused?
This end-to-end testing revealed critical design needs we'd have missed testing screens in isolation.
Design Highlights
Making role distinctions clear
Added a persistent "acting on behalf of" indicator and profile chooser to make it crystal clear:
The sponsor is not the employer
They have different permissions
This is authorised delegation, not identity substitution
Designing for skimmers
Sponsors don't read carefully—they're busy caregivers managing multiple responsibilities. Through iterative testing, we learned information hierarchy was critical:
What worked
Action-oriented headlines
Visual hierarchy guiding the eye
Short, specific instructions
Callouts for critical information
What didn't
Long explanatory paragraphs
Legal language without plain-text translation
Assuming sequential reading
Conversational entry point
Rather than technical language, we asked: "Who are you transacting for?" This natural question helped sponsors easily understand their role without legal jargon.
Building shared understanding across functions
Throughout the process, I collaborated closely with processing officers and the legal team to understand the current situation and address their concerns. Building shared understanding and ownership across operations and legal was essential—the solution needed to work for officers verifying transactions and satisfy legal requirements, not just serve employers and sponsors.
Key considerations across teams
Operations
How will delegation affect processing workflows? What verification steps do officers need? How do we prevent fraud while maintaining usability?
Legal
What creates liability issues? How do we maintain clear role distinctions? What happens if the employer disputes a transaction?
This collaboration meant our designs weren't just user-friendly—they were implementable within government constraints and legally sound.
As of Nov 2025, Sponsors can now renew work permits without employers' involvement and need for declaration forms!
Immediate outcomes
600+ transactions completed in first year
Sponsors actively requested more transaction types be added
Reduced need for physical visits with elderly employers
Strategic influence
Research findings presented to senior management and policy teams
Documented the gap between legal structure and lived reality
Insights shared with National Digital Identity team to inform future SingPass delegation approach
Established a model for how design research can surface policy-design misalignments
Reflections
This was a project that left a strong sense of purpose in me, leading me to pursue my higher education in an area of design that dives into relationships and systems, rather than pixels. It also influenced how I always approach design from a systems and strategic angle.
This diagram in particular is something I constantly go back to, as a constant reminder to not let policy determine experience, and that government services are deeply human and personal.
