Life At Work Awards Champions In Diversity And Inclusion

KUALA LUMPUR, 9 SEPTEMBER 2015 – Maybank Group, IBM Malaysia, IHS Malaysia, Shell Malaysia and KPMG Malaysia are all winners at the prestigious Life at Work Awards 2015. 

The Performance Management and Delivery Unit (PEMANDU) chief executive Dato’ Sri Idris Jala, who is also a Board member of Talent Corporation Malaysia Berhad (TalentCorp) presented the awards to winning employers. “Diversity and Inclusion are some of the fundamental values that correlate with improved business performance. I am confident that our Life at Work Award winners are not only employers of choice for talent but also high-performing organisations. I call on more Malaysian employers to champion progressive workplace strategies, to attract and retain quality talent, in addition to ultimately strengthen Malaysia’s competitiveness,” Dato’ Sri Idris Jala said.

The awards pay tribute to employers with leading workplace strategies that enable employees to achieve greater success in their corporate and personal lives, and demonstrate a company’s drive and commitment to championing Diversity and Inclusion.

Now in its third year, the Life at Work Awards is organised by TalentCorp and global human resources specialists Towers Watson, in collaboration with the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development. 

Life at Work Awards 2015 winners are as follows:

• Best Malaysian Organisation: Maybank Group
• Best International Organisation: IBM Malaysia
• Best Lean Organisation: IHS Malaysia
• Best Initiative: Shell Graduate Programme, Shell Malaysia
• CEO Champion: Datuk Johan Idris, Managing Partner, KPMG in Malaysia 

SunEdison Kuching received a special mention during the award for their outstanding work-life benefits, particularly in providing four weeks of paternity leave and four months of maternity leave to their staff.

Clare Muhiudeen, Managing Director, Talent and Rewards, Asia Pacific, Towers Watson added: “This year’s winners are employers that have taken the extra step to implement successful programmes to  promote work-life integration or parent-friendly work environments to better meet the needs of talent, especially high performing women.”

Empowering Women In Leadership

To respond to the changing needs of today’s workforce and to better retain talent, Maybank formalised Flexible Work Arrangements (FWA), providing options for staff to work on fixed flexible schedules, flextime, part-time and flexible work locations. Maybank also tracks the diversity metrics in their succession pool, resulting in an increase in women serving in senior management positions from 11 percent in 2008 to 35 percent in 2014. Maybank also introduced the Women Mentor Women initiative which pairs women mentees with mentors in senior management. The initiative is sponsored by Maybank’s Group Chairman, Tan Sri Dato' Megat Zaharuddin Megat Mohd Nor.

Meanwhile, in explaining KPMG in Malaysia’s approach, the CEO Champion, Datuk Johan Idris said: “Diversity & Inclusion has always been an integral part of KPMG’s DNA which started with our founding Partners of the firm.  My role as the Managing Partner of KPMG in Malaysia is to ensure that we sustain the momentum and we did that by appointing for the first time, two women Partners to be Heads of Business Units.  They have achieved this through their own strengths and merit and our environment helps empower them in making business decisions and to give them opportunities to excel in what they do.  On our people agenda to further enhance employee engagement and to strike a healthy work life balance, we have also formalised FWA and most recently announced an unprecedented one-week office closure, which is paid time off firm-wide for all our people to rejuvenate and spend quality time with their family and friends.”

IBM emphasised the development of female talent in IT, Technology and Finance, with women ambassadors appointed to drive these initiatives. The global IT firm also created the Business Resource Group and Women in IBM Network Group (WINGs), to inspire and enable women to achieve their full career and leadership potential. IBM Malaysia also recently announced the appointment of its first woman Managing Director.

Likewise, Shell Malaysia set specific Diversity and Inclusion targets for their technical and their commercial skill pool and East Malaysian hires. The oil and gas giant also revised its Shell Graduate Programme to be more female-centric by prioritising female candidates in their selection process, as well as creating a recruitment toolkit for Diversity and Inclusion recruiting excellence.

“We are delighted to see more and more companies coming on board the diversity and inclusiveness in the workplace agenda. For example, one of the winners, IHS piloted a Career Comeback programme to encourage women to return to the workforce. Not only are our Life at Work winners leading the way in their industry, but they are setting the standard for workplace policies and practices in Malaysia and the region,” said Johan Mahmood Merican.
 
For further information on Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace and best work-life practices, please visit www.flexWorkLife.my