■ Wong Lup Wai

Chairman and CEO

Philips Electronics Singapore

We hire and promote based on competence, experience and skills regardless of the person’s age, race and gender. We have 33 nationalities working in Singapore, with an almost equal split between men and women. Upon joining Philips, all employees sign their commitment to a set of general business principles that clearly state our focus on people, merit-based performance, and commitment to equal opportunity and non-discrimination.

Philips’ leaders also walk the walk and talk the talk – they actively demonstrate their belief and support for fair employment principles by championing policies to ensure there is an open, inclusive and non-discriminatory environment within the company. We believe in open and transparent communications and our employees know the factors that affect their annual increments and how competitive their packages are compared to the target market.

Another fundamental practice is our annual employee engagement survey. Employees are able to provide anonymous feedback through this survey, after which the results are analysed through focus group discussions. Issues surfaced through this platform are discussed and addressed with concrete solutions across all levels of management. This survey is a key metric for leaders, as they are rated by staff on a list of 10 leadership behaviours that make up the leadership index. The result of the annual survey is also included in the company’s balanced scorecard.

■ Dr Sam Yap

Group executive chairman and founder

Cherie Hearts Group International

Cherie Hearts has shown that being a homegrown company and small to medium enterprise, you can also have the means to input sound human-resource policies that advocate fair employment practices. As a relatively young company which has been in the business for nine years, we personally believe that happy and satisfied staff are key to the company’s continuing progress and expansion.

As we are in the childcare industry, we  do have a unique workforce, with women
making up 95% of our employees – 75% of  whom are married with families. Hence, we implemented flexible work arrangements for our employees who juggle work with family commitments. We have also extended free childcare services to our staff who can utilise it at any of our 60 branches island-wide. The free childcare service translates to savings of up to $500 per month for our staff.

■ Pollie Sim

Country head

Maybank Singapore

This award is an affirmation to our holistic approach to fair employment practices, which, in Maybank Singapore, covers the whole spectrum of hiring, training, career development, as well as compensation and benefits. As recently as November last
year, Maybank became the first bank to have a re-hiring policy in place that is in line with the Tripartite Advisory on the re-employment of older workers.

We also provide equal learning and development opportunities for all employees,  and encourage them to take ownership of their career development by mapping out their “personal development plans” together with their supervisors.

I will attribute our winning of the award to one of the core values we subscribe to – relationship building. By that, we don’t mean just deepening our relationship with our customers, but also among staff. This is evident in how the bank treats employees like an extended family, and takes a genuine interest in their career, development and welfare. Hence, in good times, we shared generously with our staff, and in bad times, we stick together and ride through the challenges as a team. This probably explains why our staff say it feels like a family here, which could in turn be the reason for our low turnover rate vis-à-vis industry and national averages.

■ Clifton Chua

Managing director

FedEx Express Singapore

Firstly, we encourage employees to excel and contribute by continuously looking at ways to ensure  we provide the right environment for our employees to deliver the best service to our customers and to grow with FedEx. Secondly, we believe in creating a supportive workplace culture that includes a strong focus on developing talent from within. There are really no limits to career progression in FedEx – more than half of our global management team has risen through the ranks of the company.

Thirdly, we are a proud supporter of diversity, gender equality, mature workers and advancement of women in the workplace. For example, across Asia, nearly 41% of the managing directors,  and about 28% of the management team are women. A unique practice that FedEx prides inself on is the Guaranteed Fair Treatment Procedure (GFTP). It is a process of systematic review by progressively higher levels of management to fairly and equitably handle employees’ complaints, problems, concerns and allegations regarding
fair treatment.

The GFTP has allowed our employees to be more confident and positive in executing their roles because they know they have an avenue for their concerns and they know they are, and will be, fairly treated. Management is also constantly challenged and reminded to manage their employees in the fairest and most objective manner.