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Tan Mui Sim, Group Chief Human Resources Officer, Alliance Bank Malaysia, shares how aligning the Bank’s culture, talent strategy, and employee experience with its Acceler8 transformation strategy, is building a high-performance workplace where employees can thrive.
With the launch of its ‘Acceler8’ transformation strategy in early 2023, Alliance Bank Malaysia took a bold step toward redefining its workplace culture, talent strategy and employee experience. Recognising the vital link between engagement and organisational success, the Bank has prioritised initiatives that empower its workforce, drive adaptability, and foster a sense of pride among employees.
With its innovative approaches to talent management and digital transformation, Alliance Bank Malaysia was a proud winner of several awards at the recent HR Excellence Awards 2024, Malaysia:
- Gold:
- Excellence in Digital Transformation, and
- Excellence in Employer Branding
- Silver:
- Excellence in Recovery & Rebound Strategy, and
- Excellence in Workplace Culture
In this interview, Tan Mui Sim, Group Chief Human Resources Officer, Alliance Bank Malaysia, discusses about how the Bank is adopting its ‘The Bank For Life’ approach towards its employees by viewing them as important collaborators to nurture a high-performance workplace.
Q What was the motivation that sparked your passion & business case for pursuing your outstanding people strategy?
The launch of our ‘Acceler8’ transformation strategy in early 2023 inspired us to craft our outstanding people strategy. This is because we understand that one of the key drivers for the success of Acceler8 is employee engagement and a highly engaged workforce will be an organisation’s cornerstone through superior performance in the workplace.
This understanding led us to a transformative journey to improve key areas such as enhancing our talent and culture strategy, building a high-performance culture, and providing an exceptional experience for all employees. To accelerate this change, we revamped our culture and branding initiatives to foster a workplace that employees to inculcate pride within our employees.
At the same time, the Bank is also equally vehement in our efforts to attract quality new talents to join us. We believe that investing in existing talents and new joiners are crucial in sustainable growth and performance fulfilling the aspiration of Acceler8.
Q Looking back, can you share a challenge that you overcame in your journey of HR excellence? How did you triumph?
As the Bank gravitated heavily towards digitalisation, our focus was revitalising the bank’s core values and launching our digital transformation as a launchpad towards digitising our human capital. This shift inevitably entails new ways of working and the primary challenge was to navigate change within our workforce.
These changes, while positive, impact our employees significantly. HR’s role is to help them develop the value of adaptability to ensure a smooth transition.
Throughout the process, we adopted a multi-pronged communication strategy focusing on transparency, continuous feedback and active engagement to gain the support of employees at all levels. I believe that this approach has played a pivotal role in establishing trust with our employees, enabling us to support them in this transformative journey and enhancing their overall experience with the company.
Q Beyond the recognition, what impact do you hope your feature in the HR Excellence Awards would have on the HR community and manpower landscape?
Through the HR Excellence Awards, we hope that our story will serve as a beacon of inspiration to the HR community and manpower landscape.
Organisations must recognise the importance of investing in human capital, as it strengthens skills, drives innovation, and boosts productivity, ultimately fueling long-term business growth and success.
This is especially important as the world is increasingly digitalised and HR must be at the forefront to embrace this change. This means we must be swift in leveraging technology to streamline processes, enhance employee experience and foster a culture of continuous learning and innovation.
Only then, can we help put our organisation in a strong position to achieve sustainable growth by adapting to a rapidly changing environment.
Q Could you share some advice you would give to others aspiring to follow in your footsteps?
Absolutely! Our advice would be to focus on building strong relationships across all levels of the organisation—listen actively, show empathy, and understand the unique needs of your people. Stay adaptable to change, continuously develop necessary skills, and uphold transparent communication to foster trust and alignment.
Most importantly, keep a people-first mindset; when you genuinely care about the well-being and development of employees, success follows naturally.
Q Let's talk inspiration! Who has been a driving force behind your success?
Our success has been driven by a shared commitment to supporting each other and fostering a culture of growth and collaboration. The dedication, passion, and resilience within the team continually inspire us. We push each other to be better, work through challenges together, and stay focused on creating the best possible experience for our employees. It’s this collective drive and mutual support that fuels our success.
In our pursuit to be the 'The Bank for life', I believe that our commitment to be a companion for life is not only just for our customers but also for the most important asset of the organisation, which is our people.
Read more interviews on why organisations have won trophies for their HR practices - head over to our Winning Secrets section!
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