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Priscilla Teo, Group Chief Human Resource Officer, shares how NUHS taps on the full potential of all its employees.
As a healthcare system that comprises diverse institutions with different legacies and peaks of excellence, the National University Health System (NUHS) of Singapore had to define a collective culture across its institutions.
NUHS set up the first healthcare academy within a public healthcare cluster involving tripartite collaboration.to potentially train up its 16,000-strong workforce with future ready skills. This move not only enables employees to enhance their capabilities but also aligns us with Singapore's larger shift towards a community-based model of care that goes beyond hospital settings.
For its efforts to shape the NUHS culture as a whole, the team won a bronze award for 'Excellence in In-House Talent Pipeline Strategy' at the HR Excellence Awards 2023 in Singapore.
In this interview, Priscilla Teo, Group Chief Human Resource Officer, National University Health System, shares how the group taps on the full potential of all its employees.
Q Congratulations on your top performance at the HR Excellence Awards! How has your HR and people strategy contributed to your success this year?
2023 has been an exciting year as NUHS made pioneering moves to further strengthen our internal capability to equip our employees through the launch of the NUHS Academy – the first healthcare academy within a public healthcare cluster involving tripartite collaboration with plans to potentially train up our 16,000-strong workforce in medical, nursing, allied health, administrative and ancillary professions. This will allow our NUHS employees to enhance their capabilities as Singapore shifts towards community-based care or care in non-hospital settings; thereby augmenting NUHS’ in-house talent pipeline strategy to tap on the full potential of all our employees.
Q Looking back at your achievements, what aspect of your HR initiatives are you most proud of and why?
Shaping the NUHS culture has been an on-going initiative since the re-clustering of public healthcare institutions in 2017. Our institutions are diverse and comes with different legacies, for example, the Kent Ridge Campus comprising the National University Hospital (NUH) and the three national centres: National University Heart Centre, Singapore (NUHCS), National University Cancer Institute, Singapore (NCIS) and National University Centre for Oral Health (NUCOHS) have strong association with the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine founded in 1905.
The Alexandra Campus will have the first Integrated General Hospital (IGH) that aims to spearhead a care model that provides a single care continuum by 2030.
The Jurong Health Campus (JHC) comprising the Ng Teng Fong General Hospital (NTFGH) and Jurong Community Hospital (JCH) as well as the National University Polyclinics (NUP) make up the other members of NUHS.
Embracing different peaks of excellence across each campus whilst defining a collective culture was imperative. Our collective culture consists of three parts: our values, our outward mindset, and our “WeCare” culture.
Since 2022, we have trained 1,395 leaders and more than 8,000 employees as part of NUHS’ cluster-wide WeCare culture change programme.
Leadership commitment to WeCare has been unwavering; most recently our senior leadership came together to define and communicate our leadership commitment to staff wellbeing, a testimony of how we care for not just our patients', but our employees’ wellbeing which is at the very heart of our organisation.
We are proud that these efforts have been recognised when we were awarded the Straits Times Best Employer 2023 awards in the public healthcare sector.
Q How does your organisation measure the success and impact of your HR initiatives?
Employee listening is a key measure. NUHS conducts regular employee engagement and pulse surveys to get insights on employee engagement, and also tracks employee attrition and wellbeing closely.
Q In what direction do you see the HR/people function evolving in the future, considering the emerging trends?
Healthcare is a rapidly transforming sector impacted by multiple fronts: digital innovations, workforce composition, Healthier SG (changes the purpose and function of healthcare providers). As such, our focus is not only on providing healthcare services to the sick but keeping our rapidly ageing population healthy. This calls for various community initiatives and new roles to drive the future of healthcare.
Our HR leadership team collectively defines our 2030 goals amidst the changing landscape where HR teams will be instrumental as workforce enablers to build a highly adaptable, resilient, and responsive workforce as we continue to push the frontiers in leveraging on AI and technology to enhance employee experience.
Read more interviews on why organisations have won trophies for their HR practices - head over to our Winning Secrets' section!
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