Lee says that the moves are part of a strategy for “managing a workforce through the rough seas”. — The Straits Times
SINGAPORE: OCBC Bank is investing S$30mil over the next three years to help employees progress in their careers and prepare them, as well as the organisation, for future disruptions.
Senior leaders who volunteer will be trained and certified as career coaches as part of the new initiatives.
Employees will also be able to tap an artificial intelligence-driven career marketplace to track their existing skill sets, identify job opportunities within the bank, and see the skills they need to acquire to get there.
Lee Hwee Boon, OCBC’s head of group human resources, said that the moves are part of a strategy for “managing a workforce through the rough seas”.
“Given the trends that we’re seeing – the disruption, the acceleration of technology changes in the workplace – we needed to invest in our workforce so that it is more resilient, so we have a workforce where there is breadth in skills, not just technical domain expertise,” she said.
She added that when a war for talent breaks out, levers like higher salaries or promotions are only short-term solutions to retain staff.
“The idea really is to say, what is the most intrinsic way to continue to motivate and engage our employees, and help them have a career with us? It is about continuing to allow people to have opportunities within the OCBC Group.”
The figure builds on the S$50mil the bank invested in learning programmes over the past five years.
Senior leaders who have deep experiences and are passionate about guiding younger colleagues can sign up to be trained as career coaches, said Lee.
The bank has launched its internal coaching certification programme, which is in line with the International Coaching Federation’s framework, and aims to certify 60 coaches in the first 12 months.
All employees will be eligible for career coaching from these internal coaches. This differs from typical approaches where corporates provide career coaches only for senior employees.
Lyn Lee, 48, OCBC’s head of group legal, is among the first batch of 22 coaches currently on the four-month training programme.
They will be matched to coachees from January 2024.
Meanwhile, they are boning up on skills like active listening and how to ask questions to help coachees unpack what is important to them in their career and what they want to achieve.
Besides making time during office hours to attend training – two full days at the start and then half-day sessions every other week – the trainees also do peer coaching practice sessions for up to an hour each time, sometimes at 8am in the morning or 10pm at night, she said.
Despite the challenges, she said she is eager to pay forward the help she has received from others in her own career.
For example, one of her mentors, a senior lawyer, was instrumental in encouraging her to take up the opportunity to move into a bigger role 11 years ago and was supportive as she expressed her “deepest fears”.
“I want to help others also grow and succeed in their own lives,” she said, adding that coaches like her get to hone their leadership skills that can be used with their teams or even at home.
The initiative also builds a culture of coaching at the bank, where “you don’t feel judged” for getting help to work through an issue, Lee said.
Another part of OCBC’s investment is in new or refreshed programmes in areas such as career mobility, sustainability, data and technical banking skills, adding to its slate of more than 14,000 internal courses developed by 2022.
The number of leadership programmes, in particular, grew by more than five times over the last five years.
A core component in OCBC’s plans is its career marketplace, which is being piloted from November. It will be launched bank-wide in the first quarter of 2024, followed by group-wide to more than 30,000 employees globally in the second quarter.
Hwee Boon said the career marketplace goes beyond a regular job portal to deliver personalised recommendations on roles within the bank, by sifting through employees’ skill sets based on their existing roles, the courses they have completed. — The Straits Times/ANN
