During Mr Dean Tong’s job interview, his interviewer – UOB chief executive Wee Ee Cheong – told him his job is not to help the bank maximise profit. Instead, he should focus on creating value for the customers, the employees as well as partners and stakeholders.
And as the bank’s CEO Mr Wee highlighted in the 2021 annual report, “taking care of our customers requires that we take care of our people first”.The bank’s value proposition for the employees, says Mr Tong, is care, growth and trust. This translates to focusing on things that matter to the employees, caring for their personal and professional growth in the long term; while the trust factor is about empowering employees to make a difference in their work.
The bank also heeded the needs of its workforce for a more flexible work arrangement. In July 2022, it officially implemented a two-day remote work arrangement on a permanent basis in Singapore and its overseas offices. This is on top of existing employee wellness benefits such as Flexi-2, which gives staff an additional two hours off one work day every month to attend to personal matters and reimbursements for holistic wellness-related expenses.
UOB also launched its Group Technology and Operations Academy last year to enable its 5,000-strong technology and operations workforce to be upskilled and certified in areas such as cybersecurity, software and IT infrastructure.