From her role as a junior human resources (HR) executive, Lee Yan Hong saw how the Asian Financial Crisis impacted the financial industry in 1997 and 1998. A decade later, she would have a front-row seat at how the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) affected staff at a major US bank. “I was directly involved as the HR head in Singapore; it was one of the relatively large-sized employers in Singapore,” says Lee to The Edge Singapore.
After the bank’s leaders announced the year’s second round of job cuts, what was once the world’s largest bank by market value saw its market capitalisation plummet. Staff were concerned that the bank — and their jobs — were at risk.
Eventually, the firm decided that 300 employees had to go. To prepare to break the news to affected staff, Lee and her team roleplayed various scenarios. They even asked doctors at a nearby clinic to be on standby should any affected staff require medical attention.
Above all, she told her team to emphasise that it was a “tough period” for the firm, and the affected staff were not at fault. “So, we preserved their dignity as well.” After delivering the news, Lee’s team worked with recruitment firms to place the retrenched staff in new roles.
These upheavals shaped Lee’s priorities as an HR leader, even after she left the American bank in 2011. “When you have to do something tough, bear in mind that they are your colleagues. People want to be respected. You must show empathy to your colleagues who are in this situation; you must be open and transparent. All these principles really help.”
The last option
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This interview, where Lee shares her leadership style and key lessons from her role in HR, came about after a spate of layoffs in Singapore earlier this year. Among them, the way e-commerce platform Lazada announced its shock retrenchment exercise in Singapore and the region was the topic of much debate.
When retrenchments happen, how can companies make the process less painful? “To me, it’s very important to help them get a job. If you are out of a job for too long, it becomes very difficult to re-enter the workforce,” says Lee.
This includes helping current and former staff pivot into new roles. “Let’s say if I service customers, I can go into healthcare because it’s about caring for people in a high-touch world,” Lee adds. “But they wouldn’t have thought about that. So, how do we help these people to pivot and think about other opportunities?”
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Live fulfilled
Lee, who joined DBS Bank in 2011, is now the bank’s managing director and head of group human resources.
According to DBS’s 2023 sustainability report, released on March 6, the group ended the year with 40,770 employees, up from 36,073 the year prior and 28,526 in 2019. The increase in staff last year was due to the integration of Citi’s consumer business in Taiwan. The voluntary attrition rate at DBS has also improved over the years, from 12.8% in 2019 to 8.8% last year.
According to the bank’s sustainability report, this decline was due to external job market conditions and DBS initiatives to enhance employee engagement and retention.
When Lee joined DBS, the bank was going through an evolution of its own. Lee says DBS’s brand name was not as strong at that time. “Not everybody wanted to join us in 2011 [and] 2012. The staff of foreign banks did not want to join DBS. In fact, when I joined DBS, they asked me: ‘Are you going to retire?’”
In 2012, DBS asked its employees to recreate the bank’s values. “Those values [from] the past were relevant for the past. They were good and served their purpose, but the world has changed. Post-GFC, things have changed. So, are those values still relevant today?”
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Today, DBS’s overarching employee value proposition is to enable its employees to “Live fulfilled: be the best, be the change and be the difference”. Lee says: “Our approach is holistic and intended to ensure employees feel purposeful, invested in, connected, cared for and valued when working in the bank.”
DBS is “committed” to building the “long-term careers” of its people, she adds. “We identified more than 8,000 employees for upskilling in 2020 so they could master new skills and have new career opportunities. We offer more than 10,000 learning programmes and job exposure opportunities so our employees can experience what it’s like to do a different job in the bank.”
Recognising talent
One popular scheme among the bank’s employees is nicknamed “two-plus-two”, says Lee. “If you have done the job for two years, you can put up your hand; you have the licence to go apply for any job in the bank. [If] you go for an interview and you get the job, your boss cannot stop you. Within two months, you have to be released.”
According to Lee, about 30% of jobs were filled by internal candidates last year. “This increases to 40% if we exclude entry-level roles where we hire mainly fresh graduates or niche roles in technology that require more specialised skill sets.”
Within the bank, staff that have been identified to possess High Potential (Hipo) undergo an “accelerated growth and development programme” that includes leadership training, mentoring with senior leaders and new or expanded roles, even across countries.
DBS’s two-year Strategic Talent Assignment & Rotation (Star) programme also rotates these Hipos into different functions and countries. In 2023, the Hipo attrition rate was 5.9%. Last year, some 19% of HIPOs took on a new role, while 34% took on an expanded role.
Flush with profits amid rising rates, the bank has also not been shy about rewarding its employees. In February, the bank announced a record full-year net profit of $10.3 billion for FY2023 ended Dec 31, 2023. The bank also announced that its junior employees, numbering some 20,000, will receive a one-time bonus. Singapore staff will receive $1,000, while employees overseas will receive a bonus adjusted to their country’s purchasing power parity.
In total, DBS set aside some $15 million for this one-time bonus, which the bank hopes will help staff cope with rising costs of living.
“When we talk about being a responsible company, we want to make sure that we share the fruits with everybody,” says Lee.
‘S’pore’s best workplace’
For the day-to-day of DBS’s employees, Lee claims the bank was “ahead of the curve” when it launched several flexible work arrangements in 2021, including hybrid work and a six-month, 100% work-from-home option for employees with caregiving responsibilities or parents of newborns.
Last year, DBS established the Employee Experience Council to improve employee well-being and workload. The council also aims to help new employees assimilate while offering more rewards and recognition. Over 1,200 DBS employees were appointed as “culture-builders” to communicate, gather feedback and organise programmes supporting DBS’s goals.
For these schemes and more, LinkedIn named DBS “Singapore’s best workplace for career growth”. The bank also placed 12th on Singapore’s Best Employers 2024 list by The Straits Times and Statista. In July, job portal eFinancialCareers named JPMorgan and DBS as Singapore’s best banking employers.
In a digital-first, high-tech world, “high-touch is very important”, Lee adds. “In a bank, it’s about the employees; 50%–60% of our expenses are employee-related. We would be very foolish if we don’t focus on the employee when they make the bulk of the expenses.”
This does not mean staff get a “free for all”, says Lee. “It means delivering on your employee value proposition. When you do that well, you will have higher engagement and higher retention; then things will fly. But importantly, it’s the culture, and culture is the hard piece.”
Photos: Albert Chua/The Edge Singapore
