Recruiting individuals for their talent is only the first step. Imbuing them with a sense of purpose, providing training, and encouraging them to aim high are also key if we are to build a high-performance organisation with highly engaged employees. To achieve this, we provide differentiated employee experiences, including learning and development, rewards and recognition, and a work-life balance.

ATTRACTING AND RETAINING TALENT

We want to make DBS a place where people can learn and grow while making a difference at work. By grooming and nurturing our people, we can better engage and retain them.

Growing our own timber begins with attracting the very best talent from graduates to senior leaders across the region. By creating a great place to work, our employees will be motivated to recommend DBS as a prospective employer. In 2013, we were able to attract highly qualified individuals for over 40% of vacancies through staff referrals.

Engaging our people
There are several avenues for senior management and employees to engage in open, two-way communication. They include regular townhalls at the Group and division level. These forums enable employees to understand the bigger picture and how their role contributes to the organisation’s goals. In addition, we have an intranet forum for employees to pose questions directly to the CEO or share their views with him. Feedback received from these forums has led to changes in policies and practices.

The diversity of our people – in nationality, culture and background – is a source of strength. Our employees come from the region and beyond. We also embrace gender diversity, with women accounting for 58% of our workforce and more than one-third of our leadership positions. Six of our 19 most senior leaders are women.

To support our employees in their various life stages, we have flexible work initiatives in place. In recognition of our family-friendly work environment, we were the only bank to win the “Best Company for Mums” award from the Singapore National Trades Union Congress and the Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices.

We also seek to create a work environment that is fun. We organise year-round events including sports and games, workshops and talks, bazaars and performances to promote interaction and a sense of excitement. In Singapore, we have a tradition of holding a DBS Family Day together with the DBS Marina Regatta, Singapore’s biggest water sports festival. The annual Family Day in Taiwan was integrated into a fair in support of social enterprises.

Our efforts have been recognised. In recent years, we have steadily improved our employee engagement scores in annual surveys conducted by Gallup. We now rank among the top 10% of all financial institutions and companies surveyed by Gallup. We were one of only three Asian companies to be awarded the 2013 Gallup Great Workplace Award. We were also recognised by The Asian Banker for our employee engagement in Asia.

Giving rewards and recognition
We recognise employees who go the extra mile for customers. The annual Banking the Asian Way Awards recognise teams and individuals who exemplify our unique brand of banking through the following: Asian Relationships, Asian Insights, Asian Service, Asian Innovation and Asian Connectivity.

We enhanced our package of employee benefits. At the same time, employees can determine for themselves which basket of benefits suits them best.

Supporting learning and development
Every year, we engage employees with three performance conversations which also focus on their career aspirations and development opportunities. Our performance management system not only measures the “what” but also considers the “how” to ensure sustainability in performance and alignment to DBS values.

Learning and development programmes are carried out by the DBS Academy, an in-house school with centres in Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai. The academy devises programmes in collaboration with business and support units to help our people deliver a differentiated customer experience.

BUILDING THE NEXT GENERATION OF LEADERS

We have a rigorous talent and leadership management process to identify and develop the next generation of leaders at all levels. The structured development programme comprises training, experiential learning, mentoring and internal mobility.

Talent programmes
Our senior leaders are committed to building a strong leadership culture at DBS and take an active role in nurturing talent and the development of future leaders.

We introduced four new programmes in 2013 to groom recent diploma and degree holders who aspire to excel in retail banking, SME banking and customer service.

We identify the talent pool for more senior employees by using an all-round approach that includes the individual’s performance, reviews by peers and subordinates, and external talent identification and management tools. For this pool, we designed and built new leadership programmes in 2013 to supplement existing ones.

Internal mobility
As part of the process to nurture talent from within, we have in place an internal mobility programme since 2010. Staff are strongly encouraged to leverage opportunities provided by the programme to work across departments, businesses and countries. Employees holding corporate ranks up to Assistant Vice-President who have worked two years in their current role can seek to be placed in a new role with two months’ notice. For more senior employees, the corresponding periods are three years and three months. In 2013, more than one-quarter of our positions were filled by internal transfers.

We have a programme in place for senior employees with high potential to be rotated to different parts of the organisation. The rotations include assignments to lead major projects or stints with various businesses or countries. In 2013, one-third of such employees were given new job assignments or expanded roles.