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Name
Career Profile
July 18, 2025
Karen Lau
Experienced Human Resource Management Professional with 30 Years in Correctional Services
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Remote
Summary
A uniformed officer with a Bachelor of Science (Cum Laude Honors) in Human Resource Management and a minor in Business Administration. Possesses 30 years of experience in the Singapore Prison Service in middle management, dealing with high confidential and sensitive inmate records from admission to release. Expertise in inmate management, departmental budget and expenditure, procurement, resource planning, and other finance matters.
Skills
- Organization Skill Training & Education
- Analytical Skill
- Conflict Resolution
- Effective Communication
- Observation Skill
- Judgement & Decision Making
- Teamwork & Collaboration
- Attention to Detail
- Continuous Learning
SO (Trans-Tech Planning)
Transformation-Technology Division
- testing hihihihihihihihi
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Transformation-Technology Division
2020
Cluster A Management OC Finance
- Collaborated with Finance Department to develop the Budget & Expenditure Tracker to resolve the issue of inaccurate budget planning and expenditure tracking on a yearly basis in order to achieve 99% BUR (Budget Utilisation Rate) for the organisation.
Oversaw the revamping of forecasted Resource Planning to tackle the issue such as missing out of project and/or double counting of project to ensure accurate compilation of Resource Planning given consistently change in IT projects requirement from the ground for submission to Ministry.
Developed a system to monitor challenging account payable tracking to ensure all ICT expenditure are charged to IT Division for accurate ICT expenditure report to the Ministry.
Developed a system to monitor correct Code of Account is used to for all expenditure to attain accurate account charging which lead to accurate financial report, effective cost management, support budgeting and planning processes thus provides reliable financial information for management’s strategic decision-making.
Collaborated with colleagues across divisions, such as Procurement Unit, Finance Department & Strategic Planning Division to develop training materials and to educate project managers in procurement, finance and resource planning related matters to ensure financial goals are aligned with overall organisation objectives.
Introduced DCS Workspace for volumous procurement and finance submission including alerted all on the possible mistakes which potentially lead to inaccuracy of submission.
Fostered a strong & close relationship within division as well as all stakeholders from other divisions to work together for the common goal.
Oversaw the development of a single truth database by combining volumous data required from various divisions into submission from different divisions for various submission and revamped processes from procurement to resource planning to financial requirement based on challenges faced in the past years.
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Cluster A Management OC Finance
2012
2017
Correctional Officer cum Programme Officer
- Lead a team of 10+ staff in managing hundreds of inmates non-stop daily routine to ensure smooth day to day operation of a correctional unit.
Studied and took over correctional unit daily routine processes and revamped some of the administrative management processes in order to ease tedious and hard to remember variables for both staff and inmates which indirectly improved security of correctional unit.
De-escalate conflicts and managed challenging situation with professionalism and diplomacy using effective communication and conflict resolution technique.
Learnt to assess and evaluate risk associated with inmates behaviour, interactions, or incidents and taken appropriate preventive and/or corrective actions to mitigate risks to safety and security environment for both inmates and staff.
Processed sharp observation skills to detect signs of suspicious behaviours, contraband, or potential security breaches, and to take proactive measures to address them.
Developed confidence & capability in responding calmly during emergency or crisis situations such as riots, disturbances, or medical emergencies and made sound decision in time of crucial time.
Identified & brought in programme suitable for Reformative Trainee who are young, vulnerable, rowdy to occupy them meaningfully and to minimize potential operation issue such as fight.
Engaged suitable trainers to train inmates in Visual Art Training Center and to liaise with YRSG with the aim to “market” their art piece during Yellow Ribbon Campaign.
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Correctional Officer cum Programme Officer
2007
2012
Cluster A Management OC Registry
- Reviewed Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) of Inmate Records Management for 4 prisons before end during the closure of the 4 prisons.
Managed all the operating challenges faced during closure of prisons by stages where some of the cases require timely execution of sentence based on court order.
Standardised the SOPs for the 4 prisons and consolidated all into a single SOP prior to the opening of a brand new cluster prison comprises of 5 prisons.
Managed highly sensitive inmates information in order to deal with the management of inmates and their family directly in order to ensure smooth operation.
Developed as simple yet very useful database to process highly sensitive and tedious work processes and their document which must be error free at any one point and received a lot of praises as it relieve a lot of stress for everyone from officer processing the data to officer checking the document to officer approving the document for execution of sentence based on Court Order.
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Cluster A Management OC Registry
1997
2007
Work Experience
Education
Bachelor of Science, Human Resource Management
Winona State University
Cum Laude Honors
Bachelor of Science
Human Resource Management
1997
Diploma, Human Resource Management
LifeLong Learning/SkillFuture/WSQ
Diploma
Human Resource Management
2016
Certificates & Licenses
Activities, Affiliations, Extracurriculars
Projects, Research Papers, Publications
Awards and Honors
*****
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Languages
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