200 job vacancies available for women looking for flexi-work, new academy for internal and external talent to upskill and reskill into future roles
Singapore, 26 October 2022 – Women with parental and caregiving duties looking to enter the workforce on a flexible basis will now be able to do so at UOB via its landmark gig employment programme, while tech aspirants can pursue their dream careers via a newly launched in-house GTO academy, the Bank announced today.
Gig+U Women and the UOB GTO Academy represent UOB’s unwavering commitment in taking care of its people, and growing their skillsets in readiness for future opportunities. These programmes were officially launched at its annual UOB Better U Festival today, graced by Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies Mr Heng Swee Keat.
“Our people are our greatest asset. We take a holistic approach to caring for our people, addressing pertinent issues such as work-life balance, inclusiveness and career development. We are introducing a more balanced way of working as well as extending our landmark Gig+U model to women with caregiving responsibilities. We are also setting up a Technology and Operations Academy to grow our own timber and prepare our people for the future economy. These initiatives demonstrate UOB’s promise to do right by our people,” said Wee Ee Cheong, Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, UOB.
“Women should be encouraged, not penalised, for supporting the needs of their families while pursuing their careers. With the expansion of our landmark Gig+U programme to include women with caregiving needs, they will no longer need to choose between career and family. UOB is proud to partner our female colleagues in their journey to achieve balance between their careers and personal lives, and excelling on both fronts,” said Dean Tong, Head, Group Human Resources, UOB.
“UOB GTO Academy will provide the growth platform for continuous learning and development for our people, and open doors to roles in operations and technology-related fields, for both existing staff and new joiners. We are excited that GTO Academy will also provide continuous upskilling for our people in GTO to develop their career with UOB,” said Susan Hwee, Head, Group Technology and Operations, UOB.
Gig+U Women
In an expansion to UOB’s Gig+U gig employment programme, Gig+U Women is currently offering 200 jobs in Singapore specially catered to the needs of women who require more flexibility at work due to familial responsibilities, such as mums of newborn children, women who have to shoulder elderly caregiving responsibilities at home, ladies who want to gradually return to full-time work after an extended career break etc.
In a collaboration with Mums@Work, an established career portal which pairs women looking for flexi-work with potential employers, Gig+U Women will offer full- and part-time jobs as well as gig work in UOB’s various business units. Positions offered include frontline bank branch operation and service roles, as well as those in corporate functions and back-end operations such as the ones in key growth areas like cloud engineering, anti-money laundering and Know Your Client (KYC). Employees hired under Gig+U Women will receive equal pay and enjoy the same benefits such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage as their peers with similar roles in the Bank, subject to their employment status. In addition, before new hires are onboarded, they will embark on a programme with Mums@Work that prepares them for their return to work, to ensure that they are well-supported when they start their careers with UOB.
To cater for the caregiving responsibilities of these women, positions under Gig+U Women have a flexi-hours component built in, where working hours can be adjusted based on needs. This means that women can take up permanent half-day working arrangements, work full- or part-time based on hours of their choosing, or even do project-based gig work.
Women interested in applying for positions under Gig+U Women can view the full list of job openings and apply for them via this website: http://giguob.cnavigators.com.sg.
UOB GTO Academy
UOB GTO Academy will enable its 5,000 strong technology and operations workforce to be upskilled and certified as part of their learning journey. In addition, fresh graduates and budding professionals can also apply for internship opportunities, as well as programmes encompassing structured classroom sessions and on-the-job trainings.
One such programme is the Technology Development Programme (TDP). The TDP offers a 12-month structured training to participants in domains such as cybersecurity, software and IT infrastructure. This programme is open to graduates holding Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), and also non-STEM majors from universities, polytechnics and ITEs, with participants receiving industry-recognised certifications in their areas of expertise such as DevOps, Oracle Certified JAVA programmer and ITIL certificates upon completion of the programme.
UOB GTO Academy has enabled accounting graduate Ong Han Sheng, 25, to switch course and pursue a career in cybersecurity. After graduating earlier this year, Ong was looking for a job in a technology-related field, as he felt it had tremendous potential for future growth. Coming across UOB’s TDP online, he was surprised that the programme’s prerequisites did not require a background in technology, and decided to apply for a position in cybersecurity. After being accepted, Ong underwent one month of foundational training before being emplaced in UOB GTO’s Group Information Security department for on-the-job training (OJT).
“For me, it has been quite a fulfilling journey thus far because I really enjoy the training structure. You learn the foundational skills first, then you get to apply it for real during the OJT. Through this learning process, I gradually built up my knowledge in cybersecurity, and this has helped me assimilate smoothly into my job,” Ong, who handles access management, issues monitoring and troubleshooting as well as UAT testing for UOB’s cybersecurity platform, said. “UOB’s GTO Academy is a place where I can grow and learn at a pace that I am comfortable with.”
In addition, UOB GTO Academy is also partnering the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) to grow its own timber of technology and operations talents via SIT’s Work Study Programme and Capstone Projects. Both parties will jointly set up an accelerator to support fintech education and innovation.
UOB GTO Academy aims to build a learning ecosystem that incorporates internally developed content as well as content from external industry experts. GTO Academy will continue to enhance the content for its GTO workforce to deepen their capabilities and equip the workforce with the right skills to be future ready.
Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with SIT, SIM, NUS and IBF
In addition to SIT, UOB also inked three other MOUs with the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM), the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Institute of Banking and Finance (IBF) to further develop employees’ capabilities in technical expertise as well as soft skills.
UOB’s MOU with SIM will entail the Bank setting up a corporate university with the help of SIM, where leadership and other development courses will be offered to employees of the Bank. In furthering lifelong learning and education, NUS will offer workshops and courses to upskill UOB employees in technical and business competencies, as well as in areas including emerging technologies, the future of banking, and environmental, social and governance (ESG). The Bank will also work with IBF to explore new reskilling and upskilling initiatives for employees, as well as expand on existing ones. Additionally, UOB and IBF will study opportunities for leveraging technology and related platforms such as the Future Skills Accelerator (FSA) to perform workforce transformation and talent development at scale, and work with IBF Careers Connect on job-matching opportunities.
Balanced way of working
UOB is committed to doing right by its people by ensuring that they have a sustainable and fruitful career with the Bank while meeting their personal goals and priorities. To this end, the Bank is enhancing its work policies with a set of meeting etiquettes to better promote work-life balance. These include not scheduling meetings before and after working hours, and on weekends; and discouraging organisers from involving too many people from the same team to a meeting. These practices should reduce the amount of time employees spend in meetings, thereby increasing their work efficiency and free up more time for them to spend with their families and pursue their personal interests.
The meeting etiquettes are on top of existing perks that UOB offers to its people, in recognition of the importance of balance between employees’ work and personal life. In addition to competitive remuneration and leave benefits, UOB officially implemented a two-day remote work arrangement on a permanent basis from 1 July 2022 in Singapore as well as its overseas offices. The Bank also has a Flexi-2 programme, where all employees are given an additional two hours off during a work day every month to attend to personal matters. Other perks include a choice of staggered start-work times, and reimbursements for holistic wellness-related expenses such as medical screenings and Traditional Chinese Medicine treatment, childcare and dependent care centre fees, health-related programmes and vacation expenses.
