Maybank: Increasing Workforce Diversity For Future Growth

Photo (above): Nora Abd Manaf (second from right), group chief human capital officer of Maybank, receiving the Best Malaysian Organisation award from Datuk Seri Idris Jala at the Life At Work Awards 2015.

Maybank emerges as the winner of the Best Malaysian Organisation category for the second year running. The largest Malaysian bank with global presence in 19 countries, continues to enhance its Work-Life policies year on year and has made significant progress since 2013.

Flexible Work Arrangements (FWA)

A key feature of the Work-Life Policy is the formalisation of the Flexible Work Arrangement (FWA). 67% of the population now on FWA are women since its formalisation in 2013. This initiative has enabled Maybank to retain its talents, some of them may have otherwise decided to leave. The FWA is part of the contributing factors that have resulted in the improved key retention rate from 52% in 2009 to 86% in 2014.

Among its key objectives of formalising FWA are to:

• Continue to be an employer of choice.
• Increase employees’ productivity.
• Retain talent.
• Respond to the changing professional and personal needs of today’s workforce.
• Ensure consistency in practice among stakeholders across the Maybank Group.

With the FWA policy in place, Maybank staff may apply for FWA based on some guiding principles which include validity of the request, the nature of their role and the performance of the applicant.

Greater representation of women in leadership positions

One of Maybank’s human capital priorities is to focus on driving greater diversity on the leadership bench. Women representation in management positions have grown from 38% in 2009 to 46% in 2014 whilst women in top management positions increased from 15.68% in 2009 to 31% in 2014.

The higher women representation at senior levels is a result of focused efforts, including incorporating targets in the Maybank Talent Review and Succession Planning process, which set out to identify and surface women talents and successors for talent programmes, as well as to assume larger responsibilities.

These efforts have shown positive outcomes, with an increase in women in the succession planning pool for critical positions from 19% in 2010 to 35.1% in 2014. In real numbers there was a marked increase of 168 individuals in 2013 to 264 in 2014. This improvement can be attributed to the Group’s targeted diversity initiatives such as the Women Mentor Women (WMW) programme and Women Mentor Women Council, amongst others.

Women Mentor Women Programme

The programme is a structured mentoring and coaching programme to develop effective future leaders amongst women as well as raise their performance level. It is part of reinforcing the Bank’s culture of mentoring and coaching, as well as designed exclusively for women across the Group. Launched in late 2013, this programme has paired 35 women mentees with 35 mentors from senior management as a mentor.

Women Mentor Women Council

The women’s agenda in May is executed through the Maybank Women Mentor Women Council and it aims to increase the number of women in top management. The Council works within the current structure of the Bank to increase representation of women in top management and has 5 targets to deliver in 2015. The targets include the successful appointment of qualified women into a minimum of 30% managerial position vacancies in the year, and also breakthroughs in business derived from insights on women, for example women’s financial and purchasing patterns and needs.

Vision

To inspire Maybank women, and empower them to draw on their own unique leadership qualities that will enable them to elevate to the highest levels of leadership.

Some of the key strategic priorities of WMW Council include:

• Appointment of women into CEO positions within the Maybank Group.
• Increase the pipeline of women into management roles across the Group for sustainability of female bench strength.
• Businesses to leverage women’s insights to building impactful business ideas.
• To increase and build mobility of women into international positions in all geographies where the Group operate.
• Identification of women successors in every critical positions within the Group to build bench strength.

Rigorous tracking of gender representation, including at senior levels, remains part of Maybank’s standard people dashboard since the start of the Maybank Transformation Programme. Maybank continues to advance the women agenda year-on-year to enable women to accelerate their development and enhance performance while successfully balancing the demands of career and personal life.

Eileen, who has been working with Maybank for four years, has taken advantage of the FWA programme.

Eileen Low Siu Ping, Maybank Group Community Financial Services, Menara Maybank

“Before I discovered Maybank’s FWA programme, I often came to work late, which reflected poorly on my performance. It was a challenge to be at the office by 8.45am because I have to take care of my sibling, who requires intensive medical attention. Thanks to the FWA programme, it has given me work-life balance, by allowing me to provide care for my brother as well as pursue my career with the Bank.”

For more information on Maybank’s initiatives, please visit flexWorkLife.my/resources/case-studies

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