We understand that as an employer of more than 2,600 people worldwide, we have the responsibility to empower our people to achieve a healthy work-life balance. This is why we launched an enhanced family friendly policy for our teams in Singapore.
Having come into effect in December, this new policy underpins SThree’s focus on building an inclusive and flexible working environment for all our people from offices from across the world.
Designing the right policies for our parents in Singapore
With our workforce demographic in Singapore constantly changing and evolving, we kicked off an annual review early last year focusing on a consultative approach to maternity and paternity.
As part of this process we captured feedback from employees who are at different levels in their careers and lives, and listened to the challenges our people faced in the past or may still face when starting a family.
The aim was to design and provide a family friendly policy that allows a flexible work-life balance for our employees.
Enhancing our maternity policy
We understand the importance of spending quality time with your family, especially if you are the primary carer for a child and your extended family, which is often the case in Asia.
Singapore has a very diverse mix of ethnicities including locals and expatriates. Enhancing our maternity policy helped us identify our local colleagues with commitments close to home but also expatriates working for us who often lack the physical support of their family and friends.
Aveline Tan, HR Consultant for APAC and MENA commented, “I’m excited to be part of a progressive team. This project has highlighted the importance of attracting and retaining talent in recruitment while exploring cultural norms and balancing them with business expectation.”
“We look forward to rolling out the next phase of this project and reviewing our family friendly policies across the entire APAC and MENA region in 2017.”
The family friendly policy in more detail
Our enhanced maternity leave has now increased to 26 weeks within a 12-month period, whereby 18 weeks are fully paid. This applies to all our eligible employees, irrespective of their nationality and marital status.
We also offer a Baby Bonus which can be put towards maternity related costs. In addition, we support flexible working arrangements - such as ‘soft-starts’ - when employees return to work after parental leave to assist them during this transition period. This enables our employees to assess and advise us of their individual needs whilst HR can help tailor a plan to support the company’s business needs.
“Working with my HR Partner, Aveline on this project has given me a fantastic opportunity to reflect on my own experience of having been a new mum with a full-time job in a foreign country,” says Claire Mear, HR Business Partner APAC & MENA.
“Understanding the local cultures (and there are many) has embedded my belief in the need to offer not just financial support but also flexibility, a maternity buddy and empathy. Working with colleagues directly to help them through such an important time in their lives is a privilege,” concludes Claire.
Like what you’ve read? If you would like to join our exciting and vibrant team in Singapore, please email Aditi Singh from our Talent Acquisition Team or view our current positions available.