DBS introducing additional measures to help protect employees' mental health

Since Covid-19 struck, like many others, DBS has been realising new ways of working. Late last year, we introduced a permanent hybrid work model and a formal job sharing scheme to provide employees with more flexibility. We also put in place a slew of programmes under our TOGETHER employee movement to help our people manage their physical, emotional and mental well-being. However, with the pandemic looking to be more protracted than hoped, we are doing more for our employees, particularly on managing the blurred lines between work and home. This is something we picked up in our employee pulse checks, and we want to address this proactively before it takes a toll on mental health:

• First, we will keep Friday afternoons free from internal calls or meetings. From WebEx to wind-down, we are making a conscious effort as an organisation to ensure that our employees have a few hours of “own time” for focused work, learning or even quiet reflection before transiting to the weekend.
• Second, we will grant employees with a newborn or a newly adopted child, or who need to care for family members recovering from critical illness or injury, the flexibility to work from home 100% of the time for up to six months. This is to better support employees going through different life stages.
• Third, we will launch a firmwide mental wellness campaign to equip our people with practical tools to combat burnout and protect their mental well-being. We will also roll out a series of programmes and sharing sessions around mental health, all with the aim of normalising employees saying "I'm not OK" and encouraging frank conversations on mental well-being.

Our people are our greatest asset, and this was evident in the way our employees went the extra mile for our customers and the community this past year. As the battle against Covid-19 rages on, it is incumbent on companies to not only safeguard the physical well-being of employees, but to also help fight the invisible scourge of workplace burnout.?