Fostering Employee Pride through Care, Growth and Trust

In 2022, we unveiled two strategic initiatives designed to strengthen our culture and to build employee pride – our sharpened Purpose and The UOB Way.

Sharpening our Purpose

As our footprint and family continue to grow, it is important that all colleagues are united by a common and shared purpose. In September, we held a hybrid global town hall to unveil our sharpened Purpose and to recommit to our Promise to be Right by You.

Our sharpened Purpose has struck a chord with our people whether they are in our front, middle or back office.

97%

are inspired by our sharpened Purpose.

Inspiring colleagues around the world with Our Purpose and Our Promise.

The UOB Way

The UOB Way is our commitment to nurturing an environment where our people feel recognised and valued. Put simply, it is the way we work at UOB.

The UOB Way guides the people programmes and policies we create, such as learning and development, career planning and progression, engagement and culture, flexible work arrangements, well-being, compensation and rewards.

Building the future of ASEAN

Honourable
Enterprising
United
Committed

Care
Growth
Trust

We launched The UOB Way at a global hybrid town hall titled ‘Our Purpose, Our Promise’ in September 2022. We have subsequently rolled out workshops with our top 140 senior leaders where they tested The UOB Way based on real-life scenarios. In 2023, we will continue to embed The UOB Way through our programmes and policies, as well as through a cultural refresh initiative.

Values-based leadership and decision making are key outcomes of The UOB Way.

The unprecedented changes and challenges created by COVID-19 prompted both employers and employees to reassess the future of work. Similarly, we have reviewed our policies and programmes to ensure they remain relevant to the needs of our people, while also enabling the Group to achieve its business objectives.

Balancing professional and personal responsibilities

We have been at the forefront of providing different work options for our people, including being the first bank in Singapore to commit to a permanent flexible remote work policy once COVID-19 restrictions were lifted. Our holistic approach includes:

Hybrid working – offering flexibility for colleagues in eligible roles to work from home or at a location other than the assigned workplace within the city of their work location. More than half our colleagues opted for this and their engagement levels in our annual engagement survey were four points higher on average.
Flexi2 – providing full-time employees with two hours of paid time-off from work every month to attend to their personal matters.
Staggered work hours – adjusting the start- and end-of-day work times for full-time employees.

In 2022, we also introduced shortened working hours on Friday for all employees to begin their weekend one hour earlier, providing better work-life harmony.

“2022 was a challenging year for me. After losing my mother the year before, I became the primary caregiver for my father who had undergone an operation. On top of that, I was supporting my daughter for her exams.

“I am fortunate for the support from my manager to work part-time for six months. This arrangement enabled me to balance my work and family needs, and gave me the space needed to look after my physical and mental health while attaining job satisfaction.”

Ms Tang Shi Min

Group Technology and Operations

Taking care of the total well-being of our people

The care we have for our people is demonstrated through our total employee wellness approach:

Helping our people own their own home

In 2022, we upped the ante on our employee banking benefits. To help our people secure a home for their family, we enhanced our staff housing loan for colleagues in Singapore by offering one of the most competitive staff housing loans in the industry.

Continuing to provide care during COVID-19

While COVID-19 restrictions were lifted in many markets and many borders reopened in 2022, we remained vigilant and continued to protect our people.

For example, during the lockdown in Shanghai, many colleagues were not allowed to leave their homes or neighbourhoods, while others stayed at UOB Plaza round the clock for two months to ensure the continuity of our Bank’s operations.

To help our colleagues through these times, we invited professional coaches and therapists to conduct various wellness courses for colleagues, including sound healing, meditation, breathing exercises and flow yoga.

We provided a range of recorded and live-streamed wellness courses for colleagues to experience in the comfort of their homes during ongoing COVID-19 lockdowns.

“I am truly grateful for having the opportunity to participate in the Bank’s COVID-19 care courses. I feel empowered and the courses are effective in managing stress, reducing anxiety and bringing peace of mind. For some courses, colleagues across functions even gathered during their lunchtime to share, learn, reflect and appreciate how to focus on ‘here and now’ while preparing for ‘far and future’.”

Ms Susan Shi Wei

Wholesale Banking Business Management, UOB China

As a future-oriented and employee-centric organisation, UOB proactively prepares and enables our colleagues to develop themselves and their career to the fullest potential.

Our flagship people programme Better U, which was launched in 2019, kick-starts employees’ journeys to stay relevant in the digital age, regardless of their seniority, function or educational background.

Better U comprises three components:

A 12-week foundation course covering five core competencies:

Growth Mindset

Problem Solving

Digital Awareness

Human-centred Design

Data Storytelling
Optional pathway programmes in areas including artificial intelligence, data analytics and project management. These pathways range from basic/intermediate levels to more advanced levels to train existing practitioners; and
A week-long annual Better U festival, which celebrates the Bank’s commitment to creating a #better workplace, workforce and work-life.

Some 17,000 employees have attended our Better U foundation and/or pathway programmes.

2022 Better U Festival highlights

The Better U Festival was launched by (from left) Mr Wee Ee Cheong, Deputy Chairman and CEO; Guest-of-Honour Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Mr Heng Swee Keat; and Mr Dean Tong, Head of Group Human Resources.

The ‘Paving the way for women in UOB’ panel was high on the agenda of many attendees.

Keeping fit for work through simple stretching and strengthening exercises.

Deepening our bench strength

“Our people are our greatest asset. We have put in place a wide range of training programmes geared towards future trends and skill sets so that they will thrive in the new banking landscape.”

Mr Dean Tong

Head of Group Human Resources

UOB has several core learning and development programmes to help our people develop the technical and leaderships skills they will need for successful and sustainable careers. These include:

The UOB Leadership Academy
Since 2013, we have collaborated with leading global business schools such as Columbia, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Tuck to deliver a blend of experiential and application-based learning for the Bank’s high-performing talents. More than 2,000 colleagues have successfully completed courses through the UOB Leadership Academy, including 335 in 2022.

Leadership Right By You
Since launching our flagship leadership and managerial skills programme Leadership Right By You (LRBY) programme in 2017, more than 7,000 UOB leaders from around the world have enrolled in the suite of three programmes targeted at individual contributors, first line managers and managers of managers. More than 90 per cent of LRBY participants rated the programmes positively for course and trainer effectiveness.

Leadership Acceleration Programme
As part of our determination to build a pipeline of leadership talent, the Leadership Acceleration Programme provides high performers with high potential with leadership development and executive coaching, job rotations and strategic project assignments, senior management exposure and opportunities to accelerate them through the organisation to then take on leadership roles.

Management Associate Programme
In 2022, UOB received more than 30,000 applications for its prestigious Management Associate (MA) Programme. Some 60 top talents in the region were chosen for our 2022 intake.

The 18-month programme design develops MAs through four main components:

A 12-week foundation course covering five core competencies:
Training in areas including financial management, leadership, personal effectiveness and risk management and controls;
Regional exposure to deepen cross-border collaboration; and
Mentoring and buddy programme to support MAs in understanding UOB and career advisory.

Our 18-month Management Associate Programme gives the region's brightest talents an opportunity to gain invaluable experience at the start of their career.

Group Technology and Operations (GTO) Academy
Launched during the 2022 Better U Festival, the UOB GTO Academy will enable our 5,000-strong technology and operations workforce to be upskilled and certified. Fresh graduates and budding professionals can also apply for internship opportunities, as well as programmes encompassing structured classroom sessions and on-the-job training.

Technology Development Programme
In 2022, the Bank launched a 12-month programme for 75 fresh graduates and young professionals to gain skills in areas such as cybersecurity, software and IT infrastructure. The programme, conducted in partnership with the Infocomm Media Development Authority, combines practical on-the-job training with formal classroom studies.

Helping our tech talent remain relevant through our GTO Academy.

Through a relentless focus on growing our own timber, two out of three Managing Directors have been promoted from within.

Career Conversion Programmes
As part of promoting life-long learning, UOB offers a Career Conversion Programme (CCP), renamed from Professional Conversion Programme. To date, close to 1,500 colleagues have participated in our CCP

Pivot Programme
In addition to our CCP, we also offer reskilling opportunities for colleagues in at-risk roles to move to in-demand or future relevant roles as well as promote and support career mobility within the organisation. The 12-month programme enables participants to undergo comprehensive reskilling through on-the-job and structured training to facilitate a successful transition to a new role.

All colleagues also have access to more than 8,000 online courses through our collaboration with LinkedIn Learning and other course providers. In 2022, we also embarked on a six-month pilot of a new Learning Experience Platform that we aim to launch Group-wide. More than 3,000 colleagues are participating in the pilot to help improve the effectiveness of our digital learning capabilities.

Redesigned roles
Since 2017, of the more than 1,000 branch colleagues in Singapore who have been reskilled, 130 have assumed new roles such as Total Service Managers, Wellness Advocates, Branch Analysts and Client Experience Managers, to complement our branch network transformation.

Helping more people return to work through Gig+U

In 2021, UOB was the first bank in Singapore to offer a gig employment model to enable retirees to return to the workforce. In 2022, UOB expanded its Gig+U programme to open up 200 jobs in Singapore for women who require more flexibility at work due to family responsibilities.

In a collaboration with Mums@Work, a career portal that pairs women looking for flexi-work with potential employers, Gig+U Women offers full- and part-time jobs as well as gig work at UOB.

Employees hired under Gig+U receive equal pay and enjoy the same benefits as their peers with similar roles in the Bank, subject to their employment status.

“It takes an organisation like UOB to invest, to trust and to provide a platform for women like me to catapult back into the workforce. The support extended by the hiring teams, the flexibility in policy and the confidence-building through training and coaching has helped me hit the ground running. Personally, as a mum returning to work, it has not only made me dream big but I also know that I can achieve my dream.”

Ms Felicia Fernandes

UOB Thomson Road Branch

Core to UOB’s people philosophy is building trust in the workplace. This involves all colleagues acting with honour and maintaining the highest professional standards, demonstrating initiative and drive and striving to be good team players.

In return, our commitment as an employer is to provide an environment where our people can succeed, empowering them to work with greater impact and achieve success through collaboration.

As part of monitoring the sentiment of UOB colleagues, the Bank conducts an annual engagement survey. In an overwhelmingly positive sign, the Bank achieved its strongest engagement scores since measurement began in 2017.

Our focus on care, growth and trust has seen the Bank achieve its highest engagement score ever.

Appreciating what matters most

Each year, we hold a UOB Global Appreciation Month to celebrate and to honour the contributions of our people through a series of events and activities.

In 2022, we introduced ‘Thankful Tuesdays’ to our Appreciation Month line up. Colleagues in Singapore were able to gather through a variety of carnival-like games at our employee clubhouse 28BQ.

The spirit of appreciation runs deep among UOB colleagues.

Wearing the symbols of trust every day

In 2022, the Bank introduced an extensive new range of UOB apparel to coincide with our Brand refresh.

The new apparel is made from sustainable materials such as recycled polyester and manufactured by ethically-certified suppliers.

In support of a circular economy, the Bank is upcycling our old uniforms into useful merchandise for charity sales. A social enterprise will be engaged to produce these items, creating job opportunities for those in need.

Enabling our branches team to choose what they wear is taking personalisation to the next level.

Championing inclusive hiring

The UOB Scan Hub is a symbol of our care, growth and trust culture. It is a testament to how a good job fit can build community and connection, increase productivity and reduce attrition.

When we launched the UOB Scan Hub 10 years ago, it was the first time a bank in Singapore had set out to create meaningful employment opportunities for people with autism. Since then, UOB continues to be a beacon for inclusive hiring.

On the 10^th anniversary of the UOB Scan Hub in December 2022, more than 100 senior leaders and community stakeholders gathered to celebrate the success of the team and to encourage more companies to create more inclusive hiring opportunities.

10 years on and the UOB Scan Hub remains a positive example of inclusive employment.

Strengthening community bonds

Giving back to the community runs deep at UOB. The UOB Global Heartbeat Run/Walk is our annual flagship volunteering and fundraising programme held globally across 18 markets. In 2022, more than 15,000 UOB colleagues, customers and beneficiaries rallied together to raise a record amount of more than $2.3 million for disadvantaged children and families from 26 beneficiaries.

In conjunction with the event, numerous fundraising activities were organised. These include a concert, fitness challenge and charity food and artwork sales, as well as volunteering for food donation drives to beneficiaries.

The UOB Heartbeat Run/Walk is part of the Bank’s Corporate Social Responsibility programme.

Colleagues from around the world came together for the annual UOB Heartbeat Run/Walk to #keepthegoodgoing.

Fostering Employee Pride through Care, Growth and Trust

Our workforce at a glance