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Success Stories
Standard Chartered Bank
About Standard Chartered Bank
Standard Chartered Bank is an international bank with over 73,000 employees and an extensive network in more than 70 countries across Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
The Bank believes that creating an environment where employees can harmonise work and personal commitments is a competitive advantage in attracting and retaining talent. This will lead to higher employee engagement, lower staff turnover as well as lower recruitment and training costs.
In 2008, the Bank introduced a series of pro-family and work-life initiatives at the workplace and this has helped them clinch the recent Ministry of Manpower’s “Work-Life Achiever” Award. One of the initiatives is to encourage flexible work arrangements such “Happy Fridays”. Their approach to flexible working arrangements is built around a strong business rationale that improved employee engagement results in better business performance.
| Flexible Work Arrangements – Happy Friday |
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 Staff are encouraged to refrain from holding any internal meetings or conference calls after 3.30 pm on Fridays. This has helped to ensure that they are able to leave the office promptly at 5.30 pm. And on the discretion of their line manager, staff are also allowed to take turns to leave the office 2 hours earlier on one Friday a month to attend to their personal matters. Alternatively, they could plan a fun activity for their team during the last 2 hours on a Friday, once a month.
The Derivatives Settlement Department is one of the departments in the Bank that utilise the Happy Friday arrangement. One person from each team could leave the office two hours earlier on one Friday every month. Although meeting deadlines to settle trades is critical for this department, teamwork has ensured that operations are maintained and work-life harmony achieved.
This flexi-work arrangement has been made possible with strong support from the Bank’s senior management. They have also implemented “Happy Fridays” within their own departments. |
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To find out more about Standard Chartered Bank, please visit: http://www.standardchartered.com.sg
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