UOB lifts wage, hiring freeze; pay hike, promotion for selected staff

Singapore

SIX months after imposing a freeze on hiring, pay and promotions, UOB will in June launch a round of promotions for select number of staff.

It will also offer pay increments for most of the banking group's headcount, and has lifted a hiring freeze put in last year, Singapore's third-largest bank told The Business Times (BT). Senior management are excluded from this "broad-based" mid-year exercise.

UOB told staff in an internal memo last year that its hiring freeze will last till December 2021, and that salary increases and promotions will be put on hold until further notice, even as local banking counterparts said they would proceed with their hiring plans.

UOB told BT that high-performing employees across the group will receive above-market-average salary increases, in accordance with its pay-for-performance compensation approach. These wage bumps follow the bank's payout of the 2020 performance bonus payments, which employees received last month.

UOB's head of human resources Dean Tong said the bank "took a tough decision at the height of the pandemic" last year to hold promotions and wage increments. "The intention then was to really protect jobs. So we have not taken out anyone through retrenchment because of the Covid-19 situation," he said.

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"We are beginning to see the signs of recovery, and we are not shy to actually come out again to say, because of that, we will actually make the decision to reinstate our salary increases and promotions, especially amongst those who are most impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. It's the right thing to do."

While 98 per cent of the bank's 26,000-strong workforce will be considered for the review, Mr Tong said he expects about 5 per cent to be promoted. The "bulk of the (workforce)" will likely see salary increases ranging up to 15 per cent, he added.

Mid-year promotions will be granted to individuals with widened job scopes and who exceeded performance expectations over the last 12 months, the bank said. The timing is set to coincide with the mid-year performance review of each employee.

BT understands that UOB had said in an internal memo that all employees "need to play their part, controlling costs and headcount".

In response to BT's queries then, the bank said it was taking a "disciplined and selective" approach to any new increases in headcount, but that it will continue hiring for roles essential for strategic priorities.

Mr Tong told BT that the hiring freeze has since also been lifted. He expects the bank to hire between 1,500 and 2,000 people in Singapore this year, in part to account for attrition and also to boost specific teams, such as in technology and wealth management. "Moving to 2021, the momentum has been actually very strong, much stronger than what we have anticipated. So against that backdrop, we have made the decision to say it is time for us to actually again be proactive.".

Singapore banks typically conduct salary reviews at the end of the year, and UOB considers this an out-of-cycle review. The bank will conduct a second review at the end of the year.

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