HDB staff celebrate winning of the Hewitt Best Employer award

When Higher Administrative Executive Mr Chng Ah Bah heard about HDB’s award, he could not wait to go home and tell his wife and children the good news.

Mr Chng, 62, has been working for HDB for the past 37 years. When he was asked why he had stayed with HDB for so many years, he replied with a smile, “Because HDB cares”.

This sums up the type of culture that HDB has cultivated and passed down until today.

We recognise the value of our people, which is why we have made it our mission to inspire and develop them to their best abilities, not only for HDB's good, but their own personal good as well.

Tay Kim Poh, CEO, HDB

HDB’s Chief Executive Officer Tay Kim Poh puts it this way: “We recognise the value of our people, which is why we have made it our mission to inspire and develop them to their best abilities, not only for HDB's good, but their own personal good as well.”

During the last Employment Engagement Survey conducted in 2008, 85 percent of the HDB staff gave HDB the thumbs up for providing good opportunities in training.

With such strong support from the staff, it comes as no surprise that on its first attempt, HDB was recognised as a Hewitt Best Employer.

Now in its fifth year, the Hewitt Best Employers in Singapore Study provides a definitive benchmark for participants to measure how effective they are in providing a workplace that engages their employees and delivers value through people.

The Singapore Study looked at 50 companies across various industries, focusing on three key areas: leadership, corporate culture and career opportunities for employees.

Growing People

Having adopted 'Learning Organisation' (LO) concepts since 1999, HDB has developed organisational learning capabilities to instil a ‘keen to learn’ mindset in its staff.

To further extend this culture of learning, HDB offers a variety of training programmes to its 4,800 staff.  These range from customised in-house programmes to external courses and sponsorship of certificated courses.

HDB staff at a Re-Orientation Teambuilding Workshop

One of these is a customised in-house programme which focuses on soft skills such as customer service, organisational learning and leadership, as well as technical proficiencies that cover HDB policies, processes and procedures.

Staff may also go on study trips, attend external conferences and workshops relevant to their work area.

In addition, HDB provides opportunities for personal and professional growth via the sponsorship of certificate programmes, cross-functional work teams and job rotations.

When Public Relations Officer Clara He joined HDB last year, she did not expect to be sponsored to do a professional certificate.

“I am very grateful for this opportunity to improve myself…taking up this course will enable me to reinforce my PR training and help me perform better in my work,” she says.