CIMB Bank Singapore emphasises employee engagement

The company wins at the 2022 SBR Management Excellence Awards.

Given that one of the strategic focus for CIMB Bank Singapore (“CIMB” or “the Bank”) centred around “workplace wellbeing”, the Bank took a holistic approach to employee engagement and implemented a series of initiatives through a joint and concerted effort across various functions, namely Human Resource, Corporate Communications, Admin and Technology (“IT”). 

From an HR standpoint, the Bank focused on several people interventions emphasising employee engagement. 

Firstly, the Bank rolled out a monthly Wellness@Work initiative focusing on three (3) main themes – physical fitness, mental health and nutrition. These monthly workshops involved relevant speakers to equip employees with knowledge and tools in the theme(s) of their choice. 

Secondly, as part of the return to the office, as we entered the endemic stage, CIMB organised social engagement sessions (dubbed EPICC FriYAY) in its offices on the first Friday of the month, in conjunction with the newly refreshed corporate values – EPICC Enabling Talent, Passion, Integrity & Accountability, Collaboration and Customer Centricity. During EPICC FriYAY, employees had the chance to casually mingle with respective Heads of Departments and colleagues, enjoy light snacks, and participate in some EPICC games to win small EPICC prizes.

As leaders play a critical role in driving engagement, CIMB also shifted its focus to the leaders at all levels. The Bank involved leaders in championing Wellness@Work workshops as well as hosting EPICC FriYAYs’ activity booths. Leaders were “visibly” anchoring, sponsoring and leading those engagement initiatives. Symbolically, the Bank believes that the involvement of the leadership team sends a strong message to all employees as the leaders themselves are championing employees’ well-being and engagement versus any other HR events. The impact was very prevalent, for example, running a mental health workshop with a third-party speaker versus having the Head of Consumer Banking championing the topic alongside the speaker. 

As part of the holistic approach to employee engagement, it was truly a collaboration across various functions. The Bank could not possibly engage all employees if they are not aware or kept informed of the Bank’s direction or key achievements. Hence, from a Corporate Communications standpoint, CIMB ramped up internal communications via bi-weekly blogs from the CEO’s desk every other Wednesday (aka Wednesday Bytes) and organised Bank-wide quarterly town halls to keep #teamCIMB informed.

Another critical element of employee engagement that the Bank focused on in the past 1.5 years was to provide a workplace that enables greater engagement and fosters relationship building. CIMB believes that strong social bonds built at work are key to well-being and organisation culture. The new office space is designed to keep #teamCIMB connected and engaged with a conducive environment for both employees and customers. The Bank’s Admin and IT functions played a significant role in the office relocation effort and provided #teamCIMB with the right collaborative space and tools to further enhance collaboration and forge greater connections at the workplace.

The success and scale of these various initiatives were the main reasons why CIMB Bank Singapore won the Employee Engagement of the Year - Banking Award at the 8th SBR Management Excellence Awards.

The Awards programme recognises key players and major innovators and companies whose initiatives have brought success for their operations, and CIMB Bank Berhad, Singapore Branch distinguished themselves from their competition through the concerted effort of creating a safe work environment and initiating a series of engagement activities to instil a sense of pride and brand affinity amongst employees.

With this award, CIMB Bank Singapore has established itself as one of the region’s best banks to work for, as employees voice out their support in the initiatives that the bank has rolled out to support them through the transition into a new normal working culture.

The SBR Management Excellence Awards is presented by Singapore Business Review Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2023 awards programme and be acclaimed for your company's employee engagements and management initiatives, please contact Julie Anne Nuñez at [email protected].