The State of Organizations 2023 - Flipbook - Page 42
CHAPTER 2: LESSONS FROM LEADERS
Leading from the
front: How DBS
embraces change
and empowers
employees
Yan Hong Lee, managing director and
head of group human resources for DBS,
discusses creating a purpose-driven,
empowered organization.
S
ingapore-based financial
institution DBS has been named
“World’s Best Bank” by several
global publications, such as Euromoney
and Global Finance. It has focused on its
purpose, pushed the limits of technology
to shape the future of banking, and
invested in creating a healthier and more
diverse workforce.
As the managing director and head of group
human resources, Yan Hong Lee works
closely with the senior leadership team to
drive the company’s strategic people
agenda and empower its more than 33,000
employees to make faster, better decisions
in line with the bank’s values and priorities.
We spoke with Yan Hong about how
DBS fosters a distinctive workplace
culture and engages and empowers its
employees. An edited and condensed
version of the conversation follows.
What sets DBS apart from other
organizations?
There are three special ingredients
that set us apart. The first is strong and
60
consistent leadership. Our management
team has been together for a long time.
They’ve set a vision, purpose, mission,
and strategy for our organization and
communicated it clearly through an
easy-to-understand mission of ”making
banking joyful.” We also use a balanced
scorecard to prioritize our efforts; it’s
created from the top down and bottom
up, so everyone buys in.
Next, we foster a culture that supports
our purpose. DBS was created 54
years ago to help in the development
of Singapore. We are here to do good
things for people and make a positive
difference; that is deeply rooted in our
organization’s psyche. When we laid
out our vision to be “the best bank for
a better world,” it wasn’t something we
were trying to discover or overlay onto
our existing culture.
At the same time, we want to make sure
the culture we build has a tangible impact
on our business, customers, and the
community we serve. We had to become
more agile, flexible, and customer centric.
We started by streamlining our matrixed
The State of Organizations 2023
organizational structure to three levels.
Now we also have a horizontal organization
that enables us to move faster by removing
roadblocks, breaking down silos, and
leveraging data more effectively.
Our third ingredient is the way in which we
deliver our employee value proposition:
“Live Fulfilled: Be the Best, Be the Change,
and Be the Difference.” We are committed
to building the long-term careers of our
people. For instance, we identified more
than 8,000 employees for upskilling in
2020 so they could master new skills and
have new career opportunities. We also
have a great learning culture, offering
more than 10,000 learning programs
and job exposure opportunities so our
employees get to experience what it’s like
to do a different job in the bank. Today,
one out of three vacancies in the bank are
filled by our own people. We were also
ahead of the curve when we launched
several flexible work arrangements in
2020, including hybrid work and a 100
percent work-from-home option for six
months for employees with caregiving
responsibilities or parents with newborns.