WHM Interview #9: Susan Vaughan - Economic Independence for Disadvantaged Women

During Woman's History Month (WHM)?- I’ve been interviewing a number of woman leaders from a variety of backgrounds - along with some Male Allies:

Interview 1: With?Dali Sanghera, MD at?Accenture

Interview 2: With Sital's Mum! My 84 year-old mother's story and wise advice

Interview 3: With?Uma?Thana Balasingam?- VP & GM at?VM Ware. Co-founder of the Singapore?#LeanIn?community. Founder of Lean In Asia's?#WomanInTech?community.

Interview 4: With?Shoon Lim, Consultant and DE&I Development at?Russell Reynold Associates

Interview 5: With?Anna Green, Head of SMB at?Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Interview 6: with?Jacinda Chislum Pearson, GM Talent Acquistion for at?Microsoft

Interview 7: with?Sook Hoon Cheah?GM South East Asia New Markets at Microsoft

Interview?8: with?Ahmed Mazhari, Microsoft President for Asia

Today's Interview 9 is with Susan Vaughan talking about the work of the global Non-Profit, Dress For Success.

I've a personal story which connected me to with the Dress For Success team. When I became sick in 2015, I was off work for a period of time. Whilst waiting for my chemotherapy treatment to start, I was trying to undertake some volunteer activity that would allow me to do something of value with my skills - and keep myself in a good place mentally through the treatment journey.

I was introduced to 'Dress for Success' - a global non-profit org who started their Singapore operation in 2015. They kindly invited me to their launch event, and I subsequently helped with some of the early-stage content creation for their career programs with other volunteers. And in the process, opened my eyes to a world I didn't know existed and the work of some great people. It was inspiring.

Dress For Success Worldwide works with disadvantaged woman to offer long-lasting solutions that enable these women to break the cycle of poverty. Dress for Success Singapore is part of a global movement for change, empowering women to obtain safer and better futures.

They provide each client with presentable attire to secure employment - but it's much more than simply a new outfit. Besides physically equipping the client with apparel and accessories, their programs furnish clients with a program of career support, mentorship and ultimately the confidence that they carry forever.

I'm so pleased that Susan could make time to connect and share more.

In her day job, Susan Vaughan is in the People Team for a Commercial Real Estate Company and currently lead the People Operations function globally.?? This role sees her working with teams across the world, making sure our HR Systems, Processes, Policies and delivery teams work seamlessly to deliver all components of the employee life cycle, from onboarding, Payroll, offboarding and everything in between that HR needs to provide for Employees.

Susan also volunteers with ‘Dress for Success Singapore’ – and has kindly agreed to provide a glimpse into their work in today’s interview.

Dress for Success Worldwide is a global not for profit that helps disadvantaged women improve their employment options and gain economic independence.??In Singapore, Image Mission is the charity that manages the Dress for Success Singapore program.??Susan started volunteering as a Coach and Stylist, helping clients prepare for job interviews, create, or update their resumes/CV’s and select appropriate interview or employment clothing from donations.?Over the years she became involved in developing some of the programs that Image Mission delivers.

Sital: Susan, thanks for making time. Many people in the corporate world want to volunteer and make a difference. But often don't know how or where to start. Tell us about your background and how that influenced you to get involved with Dress For Success Singapore?

Susan: Thanks Sital. I grew up in Queensland, Australia to parents who never had the chance to get a university education, so it was important to them that I got a degree.??I did that as quickly as possible and found myself looking for my first HR job during a recession.?It took 9 months and countless applications to secure a role. ??I was excited to start working for a technology company, implementing HR Information and Payroll systems.??It was long before the term HR digitisation had been coined and it felt like a new frontier in many ways. ?I moved to Sydney to continue working in the HR Systems and transformation space and secured a role with Deloitte, a well-known consulting firm.?Whilst working for Deloitte I went back to university to strengthen my Organisational Development and HR Development skills.??

It was a redundancy from that organization that made me realize that looking for a job isn’t always so easy.??I had technology and project management experience, though at that time, Recruiters thought that was a strange mix combined with HR. ?I struggled to get beyond the first interview for HR roles. ?I was lucky Deloitte offered me an Outplacement program and I spent time working with an excellent career coach who helped me improve my confidence and focus my job search in a way I had never thought about before.??When my family relocated to Singapore, I put those things into practice and secured a job with Microsoft after two months of full-time job search. In the back of my mind, I always hoped to find a way to share my career coaching and search experience in the future.

Having had the experience of going through a challenging job search and having support from a Career Coach - I’ve always wanted to find ways to pay it forward.?To help other woman who were in a similar situation, but without some of the support I was fortunate to have during my search. ?

After spending a few years working in Singapore I found out that Dress for Success Singapore had just been established and signed up to volunteer immediately – and had the pleasant surprise of seeing you Sital in the same volunteer training session together!

I was trained to be a Stylist and Career Coach.?Since then, I have worked as a Mentor and am part of the Program & Partnership Committee, where we look for opportunities to increase our referral base and improve the quality of our programs for clients.??

Sital: Yes, I wasn’t quite the right profile to be a volunteer stylist! But I am glad we were able to collaborate on creating some of the career tools and resources for the clients.

Tell us more about Dress for Success Singapore - why they exist and the work they undertake?

Susan: Dress for Success is a global not-for-profit organisation that helps women achieve economic independence through a network of support, professional attire, and development tools to thrive in work and life.?Dress for Success Worldwide started in 1997 in a church basement in New York and now operates in 24 countries.

Dress for Success Singapore (DFSS) was established in 2015 under the name of Image Mission.?Image Mission is now a registered charity that helps women in Singapore gain confidence, secure employment, and build a better future for themselves and their families.??

Sital: Can you please share more about the background of the women that DFSS helps - and how they get connected with them?

Susan: The women Image Mission serves are referred by our community partners such as Family Service Cantres, halfway homes, women’s organisations, and tertiary institutions. ?As such, client profiles are quite diverse – from clients with lower educational backgrounds looking for front line jobs in logistics, general cleaning or retail, to clients who are professionals looking to return to the workforce after a period of illness or childcare/ eldercare responsibilities.

The one thing that the woman do have in common is that they’re all from disadvantaged situations. ?The mission of Dress for Success??Singapore is to empower these women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire and development tools to help them thrive at work and in life.

In practical terms DFSS do this through provide professional clothing and accessories to the woman before job interviews. The volunteer coaches help the woman select outfit and provide specific career coaching and confidence building through interviews and securing their next job. Beyond that we also offer mentorship and support as the woman progress in their new jobs.

Sital: What are your favorite success stories from the volunteering work? I'm sure you've many - but can you share a couple that stand out?

Susan: Yes, there are many inspiring stories. But here are two that come to mind:

• I worked with a client who was in her late 30’s who had fled domestic violence with her young son.??The client had secured a job and wanted to improve her career prospects, during our coaching sessions, we focused on a range of topics to improve her effectiveness, like how to deal with conflict in the workplace and how to show her managers she was ready to deliver more in her job and had the potential to grow with the Company.??This client also worked hard personally on her confidence and healing from the situation she found herself in for many years.?During that journey she found a passion and talent for writing poetry and songs and even went on to write a book. ?She participated in formal leadership programs, and we provided her access to professionals who helped with editing and publishing contacts to make her dream become a reality.
• Another young lady I worked with was a scholarship recipient from one of Singapore’s Universities, she worked very hard with her studies, as well as being the primary carer for her parents and younger sister.?Her start with Image Mission was to help prepare for interviews and source appropriate workwear.?After securing a job, her coaching evolved into mentoring on how she could thrive in the corporate environment and continue to grow her career.?

It's so energizing to see these women grow in confidence and independence as their careers, and lives, start to thrive.?

Sital: These are inspiring examples – and really shows the variety of women that DFSS work with.

I'm sure Covid brought it's challenges for this group of women and the work of DFSS - especially given it was always an in-person support model. How has DFSS evolved to support clients in a more virtualized world?

Susan: We quickly moved online by training our volunteer coaches and stylists to deliver virtual sessions. ?To keep clients engaged, we offered many virtual workshops on topics ranging from financial literacy to understanding your body shape. ?We even offered mindfulness workshops to help clients manage their mental health especially during the circuit breaker period. ?

This was made possible with the immense support we got from corporate partners and volunteers. ?1-1 coaching and styling sessions continued and were facilitated over Zoom. ?Despite a dismal job market at that time, we encouraged clients to make the necessary preparations, so they would be ready to embark on their job search when the economy recovered.

We delivered our signature IM Ready programme, which used to be a 4-6 weekly in-person format, virtually. The virtual programme comprises workshops and small-group breakout sessions conducted once a week over a 4-week period. The programme starts with assessing strengths and competencies and developing their personal elevator pitch. ?It then progresses to CV/resume and interview preparation and concludes with a personal styling session. ??

In a way, Covid opened new platforms for us to better engage with our clients. As long as they had a mobile phone, we could still offer the necessary support and services needed. Our community partners were doing the same by offering virtual programmes and we partnered with them to offer the much-needed support during a very challenging time.

Sital: We are now seeing a more challenging job market - along with greater digitisation and automation in the workplace. What challenges does this present to the clients that you work with and for DFSS?

Susan: We realise that many clients are looking for jobs which may not be as available today, such as administrative roles. ?There are more candidates in the market and selection processes can be more competitive. ?The 'IM Ready Programme' is helpful in this respect as it helps identify skills and competencies. Coaches then offer advice on jobs that might be suitable that they may not have thought about before.?A number of clients have started to reskill into new areas such as digital marketing or information technology by leveraging Singapore government programs such as MySkillsFuture.?

We had a client who worked in an administrative support role at an insurance company for over 15 years. When she tried to return to the workforce after a 5-year break due to illness, she couldn’t find a similar position. She has great interpersonal and communication skills, so we encouraged her to consider customer service jobs instead. She is now a customer service associate at a Telecommunications firm. We also work with employer and corporate partners to offer insights to their respective industries, jobs available and skills required. This gives clients the opportunity to look beyond what they used to do and explore options or perhaps learn new skills. ?

Sital: These are great examples of ways to keep evolving the support. For those interested - what can readers do to support DFSS and the woman you help?

Susan: As the needs of our clients differ, we find donated clothes may not always be suitable for our clients.?Donation drives for lightly worn non damaged work clothing, shoes and bags occurs only at specific times of the year.?Donors and the organisations we work with will help to sort donations and take back what is not suitable.?

As Image Mission has grown, we have expanded some of our Corporate Partnerships and value our work with partners who offer their time and expertise by facilitating or sponsoring client workshops or supporting our fundraising campaigns.?Cash donations are tax deductible for individuals in Singapore as Image Mission is IPC registered. There are also volunteer opportunities for operational work such as supporting us in the areas of event or project management, IT support, marketing etc. ????

If you're in Singapore - here's a link with 7 ways to get involved.

For those outside Singapore - go to the Dress For Success worldwide website and click on 'Find Your Local Affiliate' to see how you can get involved locally.

Sital: If readers are inspired to volunteer - what's your advice to them?

Susan: In Singapore - Image Mission is a registered charity and there are many people required to deliver and grow the important work we do.?We are primarily a volunteer led organisation and there are always opportunities to contribute.?I personally have learnt a lot through my coaching of clients through the Dress for Success program.?In addition to feeling more connected with my adopted home of Singapore, I have really enjoyed getting to know an amazing cohort of women and men who are involved with the Charity and our referral partners.?My advice, is if you are willing to dedicate some of your time, get involved you won’t regret it.

Sital: Thank you for sharing Susan about this inspiring work. What's the best way for readers to learn more about Dress For Success and connect with you?

Susan: https://imagemission.org/?is our website in Singapore and there is a form where you can register your interest to volunteer.?Do also follow us on our social media channels and on LinkedIn ( Dress for Success Singapore ) to see the work we do and testimonials from some of our clients. ?I am happy to answer any questions or share more with people who might be interested - just contact me via my LinkedIn.

Upcoming Interviews

This is part of a series of interviews to coincide with International Women's Day and Woman's History Month. Through into the middle of April, we'll be sharing more interviews on my LinkedIn stream with further discussions. Feel free to follow this on LinkedIn

Previous Interviews

Interview 1: With?Dali Sanghera, From humble beginnings and a battle to get herself educated, Dali has gone on to build a successful career with?#Accenture?over the last 30 years - where she is a Managing Director based out of Singapore.

Interview 2: With?Sital's Mum!?My 84 year-old mother shares her personal story and the vital importance of educating girls. She offers advice to woman and men on how we build equitable workplaces. Mum also shares her Wellbeing habits – something which we could all learn from. ??

Interview 3: With?Uma?Thana Balasingam?- Starting from humble beginnings at a Malaysian school where she “..lined up in a separate queue with the poor kids to get 2nd hand books.” Uma now leads?#VMWare's business across 48 markets - and is regularly being nominated on global and regional lists of the most influential woman in technology. In 2022 she was named in LinkedIn’s Top 10 Voices in Gender Equity. Uma is Co-founder of the?#LeanIn?community in Singapore and founder of Lean In's?#WomanInTech?network for Asia.

Interview 4: With?Shoon Yin Lim?- Having led the Diversity Equity and Inclusion (#DEI) initiatives at?#Shell,?#Microsoft?and?#Givaudan?-?Shoon?is currently with Russell Reynolds Associates where she focusses on the development and growth of DE&I as a key proposition for business performance globally with a focus on Asia Pacific.

Interview 5: With?Anna Green?- Having been inspired by her mother's commitment to lifelong learning, Anna has taken herself outside her comfort zone to learn - and keep learning. Her career spans across 3 different sectors in 7 countries. A qualified lawyer, Anna transitioned from Law to Financial Services to Cloud Technology with?#AWS?- Amazon Web Services

Interview 6: With?Jacinda Chislum Pearson?- Jacinda leads?#Microsoft's Talent Acquisition teams for Asia. In this open and authentic discussion, Jacinda shares some inciteful views on being a black family relocating from the US to Asia - along with lessons from Microsoft's journey to build more diversified teams.

Interview 7: with?Sook Hoon Cheah?- From a young age, Sook Hoon's mother instilled in her a belief that education was her passport out of poverty. Teaching her the importance of grit, gratitude and integrity. After a 30-year career in technology, Sook Hoon today leads?#Microsoft's South East Asia New Markets business.

Interview 8: with Ahmed Mazhari - Ahmed is the #Microsoft President for Asia. Ahmed shares perspectives on how we reduce gender inequity and offers some practical suggestions on being a strong male ally. He also shares his personal story and why he's so passionate about #DigitalInclusion.