CIMB Singapore

Oliver Guo

1. Please briefly overview your professional background and current role and responsibilities at CIMB Singapore.

I graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration (Accountancy). I started my career at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in the Global Middle Office and Operations Graduate Program before pivoting to be a Talent Acquisition professional. Given my love for the role, I have never looked back since! I currently head up the HR Business Partner and Talent Acquisition function at CIMB Singapore, providing day-to-day HR support andadvisory to my Business counterparts and stakeholders in the bank.

2. What is your approach to developing and executing talent acquisition strategies that align with CIMB Singapore’s business goals?

CIMB has a substantial regional presence in ASEAN countries. We are always on the lookout for good talent within and outside the financial services industry as that gives us varied perspectives on possible banking solutions for our clients. We have a niche challenger bank mentality in Singapore, leveraging our ASEAN footprint and digital and customer-centric differentiation to build scale. And it is important for us to recognize our employee value proposition so we can attract suitable candidates who fit into our culture and will stay with the organization for the longer term. We strongly believe that identifying key talents and sharing our employee value proposition with them will allow us to amplify our employer branding despite our lean set-up in Singapore, perhaps compared to some of the other banks.

We also believe in creating a nurturing and equitable work environment that prioritizes and nurtures the physical and mental well-being of our employees. As a responsible employer, we are committed to providing a safe, fair, and fulfilling work environment that understands their needs and desires and facilitates individual development.

We are cognizant of the changing workforce dynamics and the desire for purpose-driven work. We need to capitalize on emerging trends that drive upskilling and embrace flexibility. By attracting and nurturing the right talent to futureproof the organization, offering talent development and retention opportunities to ensure business continuity, as well as strengthening management-employee relationships to foster a strong corporate culture based on trust and accountability, we play a critical role in supporting CIMB Singapore’s growth ambitions to double our market share.

3. How do you ensure that your recruitment strategies attract diverse candidates?

We need to understand our diversity objective, i.e., bringing in talent from different backgrounds with different perspectives to add value to our business and clients. This is then reflected in our job postings and interview structure, which is ultimately meritocratic based.

We frequently count upon referrals from our existing employees as wordof- mouth is the best form of employer branding amplification, given our status as a challenger bank in Singapore. We also strongly advocate internal mobility, so ideas are cross-pollinated even within our internal employees. We then extend this to our employee benefits, taking care of the majority and the minorities such as volunteer leave (for employees to taketime off for corporate social responsibility-related projects) so that we are truly an inclusive employer.

4. Can you share any successful engagement initiatives or programs you have implemented?

Our corporate values are reflected by EPICC – EnablingTalent, Passion, Integrity & Accountability, Collaboration, Customer- Centricity – and our Talent Management team run a campaign called “Spot EPICC Everyday” (S.E.E.), allowing employees to nominate colleagues who display our corporate values in everyday work activities. Employees and colleagues work best knowing their efforts are appreciated, and the nominations/campaign awards culminate into the annual CEO Excellence Awards, which recognize top performers not just in quantitative targets but also in qualitative behaviors such as being EPICC!

5. What emerging talent acquisition and management trends are you excited about, and how do you see them impacting your organization?

The use of AI in everyday recruitment or chatbots to manage straightforward HR inquiries is prevalent, but the human touch is still very much needed in our profession, which is why I enjoy my role. It is definitely exciting to see new technological developments saving HR professionals time from Business-As-Usual work so that we can focus on collaborating closely with our business counterparts. CIMB is constantly looking to partner with our external service providers to see how we can better tap into new technologies to enhance our customer experience with stakeholders.

6. What advice would you give to young professionals aiming to navigate the complexities of the industry?

The financial services sector is a fast and dynamic industry, and established players are constantly looking at how we can adopt the same agile mindset as start-ups or fintechs while ensuring we do not lose focus on our core value to customers. Similarly, the HR profession needs to keep up with the industry's demands to ensure we can better support our stakeholders in the pursuit of creating value for our customers.

As such, for young professionals, being open-minded and spending your early career years being aware of what you are keen to do and how you can add to your company is critical for your long-term career paths. This can mean spending time speaking to seniors on your team, department, and company and learning from their experiences so that your own learning curve is exponential. People talk of mid-career transitions, which also boils down to being agile and willing to learn, which is necessary given the increased life expectancies and, hence, a longer working career.