Share: Quarterly Learning Sessions

17th Quarterly Learning Session

WorkWell Leaders held its 17th Learning Session for senior wellbeing partners around the theme “HR Bridging the Divide in Organisational Transformation”. Generously hosted by Seong Kim Ho, CEO of Singapore Institute of Management Academy (Champion Member of WWL), the session saw 35 participants gather to exchange ideas and co-create new solutions about organisational transformation through human-centred leadership. The main highlight of the session was a fireside chat with Sara Yik, Chief Human Capital Officer of SIM, who shared about her own experience helming transformation against the headwinds of stiff competition, macroeconomic uncertainty, and changing needs of the workforce. Deftly moderated by Debbie Ng, Senior Director of People & Culture at Singapore Pools, Sara offered invaluable perspectives on (1) managing executive pressures while finding a sustainable pace of adaptation (2) building a collaborative relationship with CEOs and middle managers alike, and (3) how to take care of oneself while navigating seismic organisational shifts. 

16th Quarterly Learning Session

WorkWell Leaders held its 16th Learning Session in a closed-door discussion on the theme: Understanding and Managing the Wellbeing Drivers of a Multi-generational Workforce. Fullerton Health kindly hosted the eye-opening session with 30 senior wellbeing partners. An adaptive, multi-generational approach is required to meet the realities of having five generations in today’s workplace, said Guest speaker and Medical Director at Connections MindHealth and Fullerton Health Jared Ng. Dr Jared, a renowned psychiatrist, emphasised the importance of understanding each generation’s historical context, attitudes towards work and preferred communication styles. Attendees then heard from a panel consisting of late Millennials/Gen Z employees from various industries. Moderated by Chief Wellbeing Officer of NUS Andrew Epaphroditus Tay, the panelists shared many candid observations and takeaways.

15th Quarterly Learning Session

WorkWell Leaders held its 15th Learning Session for 29 senior wellbeing partners in a closed-door discussion on the theme: Leadership Communications: Leading Conversations on Mental Wellbeing. The session was kindly hosted by Andrew Minnitt and his team at AON Singapore. Andrew, Head of Singapore, opened with a personal sharing on his journey leading and communicating across cultures and contexts. Guest speaker and Wellbeing Director at AON Singapore, Krystal Tang, shared that only 39% of senior leaders engage with wellbeing initiatives, but expect their employees to engage themselves. The room was abuzz with participants exchanging ideas on how leaders can engage more. The common throughline in all these examples was simple: keep engagement horizontal (across teams), empathetic and localised.

14th Quarterly Learning Session

Sze Keed Wong, CEO of AIA, kindly hosted the 14th QLS, which saw 30 leaders spent a few hours in a closed-door session discussing Culture and Strategy: Empowering the Middle. This was a topic also discussed at WWL’s last CEO Dialogue and it was powerful to witness the dots joining between HR and Operations heads and their CEOs. Managers in particular set the “Cultural Climate” of an organisation, according to guest speaker, Dr Vanessa S., Wellbeing Leader at Mercer. The session was rounded off by Yi Ling Chow, Deputy Director of Labour Market Policy at the Ministry of Manpower with a brief synopsis of available support to employers and employees to better enable more people recovering from a mental health condition to return to the workplace.

13th Quarterly Learning Session

Prof Chua Hong Choon, Chief Executive Officer, National Healthcare Group generously offered to host this 13th QLS together with his team at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital. The theme for this QLS session was “Supporting Staff Wellbeing at Workplace”. The session ended in a mindful walk by the beautiful Yishun pond by the hospital.

12th Quarterly Learning Session

The National Council of Social Services (NCSS) kindly hosted the 12th QLS with the theme: “Creating a Great Workplace through Employee Mental Wellness”. CEO of NCSS Ms Tan Li San offered an illuminating introduction before opening a panel discussion between herself, Mr James Tan, CEO of TOUCH Community Services and Mr Nicholas Lee, Executive Director of Resilience Collective. A generative Q&A and break-out session followed around the prompt: “What is your organisations level of readiness to deal with mental health issues?”

11th Quarterly Learning Session

The 11th QLS was hosted by Mr Benjamin Boh, General Manager, Hanbaobao Pte Ltd (Licensee of McDonald’s) and his team, The theme of this learning session was: “Self Appreciation – Workplace is a source of mental wellness than a cause”. Benjamin offered a sharing about workplace wellbeing practices at McDonald’s and participants split into break out groups before ending the session with a art jam to creatively reflect on topics discussed.

10th Quarterly Learning Session

Mr Clarence Ti, Deputy President (Administration) of the National University of Singapore (NUS) generously offered to host the 10th QLS together with his team at NUS. We were also honoured to have Ms Vera Soh, Regional Wellness Specialist, APAC at Linkedln as a guest speaker. This QLS session saw participants discussing a risk based, human centred approach to workplace mental health.

9th Quarterly Learning Session

WWL welcomed 33 participants to the 9th Quarterly Learning Session (QLS) with the theme of “Driving awareness through story telling”. CEO of Nomura Singapore, Kelvin Ho, kindly hosted the session online. Nathalie Yan, Head of Diversity and Inclusion in Nomura, shared about the journey towards building diversity and an inclusive culture within the Nomura workplace so everyone can contribute their best. Nicole Kay, Founder & Executive Director shared the evolution of The Tapestry Project and its work, which centers around education and empowerment and how to instill these to managers so they have a better understanding of mental health challenges and how to deal with them. Despite the virtual format, participants enjoyed a spirited and engaged session learning from one another.

8th Quarterly Learning Session

Ms Julie Tay, the Senior Vice President & Managing Director, of Align Tech and her team from Align Tech hosted the 8th QLS. We were also privileged to have Dr William Wan, Singapore Kindness Movement as our guest speaker for the event. In their respective breakout groups, participants were invited to discuss the question: “What is one thing your company has done well in creating a safe space?”

7th Quarterly Learning Session

AstraZeneca kindly hosted the 7th Quarterly Learning Session on 6 May 2021. The session opened with a Welcome & Breathing session by Lyn Lee, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer of Shell, which helped participants relax and wind down. Thereafter, Vinod Narayanan, Country President of AstraZeneca and his colleague Samuel Koh, Head of Corporate and Government Affairs offered a sharing before opening the floor to questions. Participants then entered a break out group to discuss the question, “What does inclusion mean for you in the context of workplace mental wellbeing?” The session closed with a sharing by Eileen Ho, Senior Manager of Workplace Safety & Health Council on iWorkHealth.

6th Quarterly Learning Session

Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei/CEO from AmCham hosted the 6th Quarterly Learning Session on February 26, 2021. She invited guest speaker, Lou Dela Pena, Chief Executive Officer, Publicis Communications Singapore, to speak on the theme of ‘Leading the Change in Mental Health’. Janice Weng, Assistant Director of MOHT and Tim Lee, CEO of Caregivers Alliance Limited, also shared about their organisation’s initiatives and services to better support employee mental health.