Adelene Tan, Assistant Director Xcellink Pte Ltd ACTION SPEAKS LOUDER THAN WORDS This week we talk to Work-Life Mover Ms Adelene Tan, assistant director of corporate services at Xcellink, who is soft-spoken yet a lady of action! Seven years ago in September 2002, caught in a dilemma between her work and her eldest son’s PSLE, this caring mother made a tough decision to tender her resignation in order to coach her son during his PSLE. To her amazement, her boss proposed that instead of quitting, she could work half a day in the morning, and return home to coach her son every afternoon. She happily accepted. That was the beginning of her experience of Work-Life Integration (WLI) and part-time work, which continued for several years. Now that her younger children are in secondary school and her eldest son is serving National Service, she has resumed working full days, four days a week.

“I take Friday off for myself, and half of the day is spent with my children,” said the mother of three. Having benefited from her company’s work-life policies, Ms Tan, who also manages the Human Resources department as part of corporate services, is now at the forefront driving the implementation of WLI programmes at Xcellink. Not only did she play a key role in the application of the Work-Life Works! (WoW!) Fund in November 2004 to finance Xcellink’s WLI programmes, Ms Tan continues till today to identify, develop and propose work-life strategies that “meet the employees’ needs and at the same time align with the company’s business objectives”.

For example, a major portion of the fund was used to purchase laptops for the managers in order to telecommute. This flexible arrangement has helped many of them cope with occasional emergencies like taking care of their sick child, ill parent or in-law, while still meeting the company’s objectives. According to Ms Tan, there are “many such situations”.

The fund was also used to set up a lactation room. Since then, five staff have used the facility, and one of them has even used it twice for her two children, each time lasting six months to a year.

These heartwarming measures have helped Xcellink attract good talent, retain outstanding staff and lower its attrition rate. Among the corporate staff, there are eight of them who have worked there for eight to nine years. One employee has even stayed with the company for 12 years!


Ms Tan said, “Without meeting their personal needs, we would have lost the employees. If my boss didn’t offer me the part-time arrangement, I would have left.”