Talent Development and Inclusion

Embracing diversity and inclusion

At UOB, diversity spans gender, culture, ethnicity, nationality, experience and skillsets. Creating and maintaining a supportive work environment in which every individual can succeed in their career is a critical part of our strategy in serving the needs of our diverse customer base. Under our Recruitment Policy, we practice non-discriminatory hiring, with all hiring decisions based on each individual’s merit and suitability for the role in accordance with business needs, job requirements and qualifications.

We value people who can contribute their skills and experience, as part of our inclusive people strategy.

Helping more people return to work

Our gig employment model in Singapore, Gig+U, enables retirees and women who have left the workforce to take on flexible work that suits their needs and work-life priorities. Medical insurance benefits are offered to eligible employees in the programme.

Our SURF (Supporting Ur Retirement and Future) programme aims to adequately prepare employees for retirement or re-employment within the Bank. All Singapore permanent employees nearing the statutory retirement age with five years of continuous service will be automatically enrolled into SURF with medical insurance coverage extended for six months after retirement.

Advocating inclusive hiring

We champion disability inclusion through the UOB Scan Hub, our centre for digitising documents from various functions, and our Wholesale Operational Readiness Centre (WORC), which manages user acceptance testing processes. We partner the Autism Resource Centre and SPD in Singapore on a structured training programme for persons with disabilities to ensure that work processes and office environments are suited for their needs and are structured for long-term success.

Ensuring training and development

We continue to strengthen our employees’ capabilities and develop our pipeline of leadership and future talent through various career development opportunities. UOB provides employees with structured learning pathways on banking fundamentals, workplace effectiveness and essential skills to thrive in the rapidly-changing banking environment.

These programmes include:

• the Better Leader Programme, which equips leaders with practical skills on personal effectiveness, team leadership and stakeholder engagement to build culture and reinforce accountability.
• the Leadership Acceleration Programme, which provides high-potential high performers with leadership development and executive coaching, job rotations and strategic project assignments, senior management exposure and opportunities to accelerate their career within the organisation;
• the UOB Leadership Academy, which delivers a blend of experiential and application-based learning for our high-performing talents in collaboration with leading global business schools such as Columbia, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Tuck;
• the Better U Upskilling Offerings to build critical core competences in areas such as digital fluency, problem-solving, business literacy and human-centred skills;
• the Better U Pivot Programme, a 12-month on-the-job reskilling and mentoring programme for employees in Singapore and Malaysia to transition into new positions within the Bank, if their jobs are impacted by developments such as digitalisation or automation enhancements;
• the Management Associate Programme, an 18-month programme that provides fresh graduates with opportunities to build their skills across the organisation;
• the U Unleash Programme, year-long internships for final-year polytechnic and Institute of Technical Education students from selected disciplines in Singapore, with high performers offered a full-time position or academic sponsorships upon graduation; and
• work-study degree pathways for polytechnic talent with industry-aligned curricula, traineeship and internship opportunities in partnership with institutes of higher learning in Singapore.