Life At Work Award Recognises Trailblazers

ACKNOWLEDGING THE BEST COMPANIES FOR WORK-LIFE INTEGRATION

KUALA LUMPUR, 15 SEPTEMBER 2014 – Shell Malaysia, Maybank Group, PepsiCo Malaysia, BASF Asia-Pacific Service Centre, Siemens Malaysia and PwC Malaysia emerged winners of the Life at Work Award 2014, which recognises and celebrates employers that demonstrate drive, commitment and tenacity to champion Diversity and Inclusion in their workplace.

YAB Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who officiated the 12th Women’s Summit held today, presented the awards to senior representatives of the winning employers. Also present was the Minister of Women, Family and Community Development YB Dato’ Sri Rohani Abdul Karim.

Currently in its second year, the Life at Work Award is organised by Talent Corporation Malaysia Berhad (TalentCorp) and Towers Watson in collaboration with the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development. It offers six categories, namely Best International Organisation, Best Malaysian Organisation, Best Lean Organisation, Best New Initiative, Making a Difference and CEO Champion.

Leading Workplace Strategies

“The Life at Work Award winners are trailblazers in work-life integration and parent-friendly work environments, implementing practices to better attract and retain talent especially women. For example, BASF Asia-Pacific Service Centre topped the New Initiative category by bringing women back to work after a career break through its Job Sharing pilot, which enabled its women employees to work four hours a day, giving them time to also focus on their growing families,” said TalentCorp CEO Johan Mahmood Merican.

Sridharan Nair, Managing Partner, PwC Malaysia and winner of the CEO Champion category said, “PwC Malaysia recognises that retaining qualified women professionals is a critical business imperative and there is a need to provide flexibility for women to balance work and family commitments. One of our initiatives is the Back2Work Programme to hire women returnees, providing them the option to apply for a Flexible Work Arrangements package.”

The business case for work-life integration was demonstrated by Siemens Malaysia, winner of the Making a Difference category, which launched PRIDE@Siemens with the implementation of its Work from Home initiative. Since its implementation, Siemens' retention rates have improved progressively from 14 percent to eight percent within two years.

“At Maybank, we continuously focus on efforts to create an inclusive and equitable work environment and over the years, we see women increasingly taking up leadership roles. We established the Maybank Tiger Cubs Childcare Centre, which is the first-of-its-kind day care centre to operate on a purely emergency basis in Malaysia and formalised the existing Flexible Work Arrangements practices into a policy, purposed to create flexible working conditions,” said Nora Abdul Manaf, Group Chief Human Capital Officer, Maybank Group – winner of the Best Malaysian Organisation category.

Shell Malaysia, winner of the Best International Organisation category, demonstrated its commitment to improve the representation of women in its workforce and management by setting specific recruitment targets for women and through specific women leadership programmes such as Senior Women Connect (SWC).

Winner of the Lean Organisation category, PepsiCo Malaysia, has in place Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for business leaders which include Diversity and Inclusion targets.

Clare Muhiudeen, Managing Director, Talent & Rewards, Asia Pacific of Towers Watson said, “We are privileged to partner TalentCorp to conduct the Life at Work Award 2014 to recognise women friendly employers in Malaysia. Towers Watson Research shows that Diversity and Inclusion can be the key drivers for employee attraction, engagement and retention resulting in improved business performance. This award instituted by TalentCorp is a timely initiative to encourage Malaysia-based companies to lead with workplace strategies to further the diversity and inclusion agenda.”

For further information on Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace and best work-life practices, please visit www.flexWorkLife.my.