How a cultural evolution is driving SingPost’s digital success

As the world hurtles towards a digital future, many organisations are focused solely on technological advancements. Singapore Post, however, is taking a different approach. The postal giant is placing equal emphasis on its workforce, recognising that its people are the cornerstone of its success. In a rapidly evolving business landscape, SingPost is committed to understanding, motivating, and empowering its employees.

In an interview with HRM Magazine Asia, Sehr Ahmed, Group Chief People Officer of SingPost, shed light on the organisation’s strategies to navigate the complexities of digital transformation while prioritising its workforce. “By focusing on employee wellbeing, fostering innovation, and investing in upskilling, we are igniting a cultural movement that places human capital at the heart of its business,” she said.

Beyond generational differences, how does SingPost identify and address the diverse motivators of its workforce? Can you share if there are recognition programmes or work-life balance initiatives tailored to individual needs and career aspirations?
Sehr Ahmed: At SingPost, we have a listening strategy through our Great Place to Work initiative where we listen, learn, and take action. This has given us deep insights into the voice of our employees and what is important to them. Through this strategic initiative, we were honoured to receive accreditations in several markets – Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, and Taiwan.

The value was less about the accreditation but more about the rigour and discipline the survey created for us. It creates a muscle that we need to keep working on, the ability for our people managers to stay close to their team members, identify motivators and tackle the demotivators. The survey has given us key insights into tangible issues and pain points we can work on as an organisation.

Since the first results in March this year, we have been working to address employee issues raised. In fact, we are gearing up for our first Pulse survey. So, the discipline of putting in place the survey, responding to feedback, then tracking our progress gives us clear milestones and insights for continuous improvement.

These measures taken together help foster trust and open communication as a foundation for a successful enterprise culture.

For recognition, there are spot recognition awards in our business units such as the Bravo Awards where employees are recognised and featured for the compliments they have received from customers.

“By focusing on employee wellbeing, fostering innovation, and investing in upskilling, we are igniting a cultural movement that places human capital at the heart of its business.” – Sehr Ahmed, Group Chief People Officer of SingPost

For work-life balance, employees have two days of wellness leave a year on top of their annual leave to reinforce the message on taking care of ourselves. We also have flexible benefits, where all eligible permanent employees receive flexible benefits payment once a year for wellness and lifestyle needs.

To encourage personal development, Singapore-based eligible employees have one day of SkillsFuture leave, where they can attend SkillsFuture courses to invest in their development plans.

While SingPost embraces automation and a digital future, how are you ensuring your workforce planning priorities the human element? Are there initiatives to reskill or redeploy employees in new and emerging roles, minimising job displacement?
Ahmed: Successful digital transformation is not only about technology – our people, culture, and values are deeply interwoven within the journey as well.

We have launched a Future of Work initiative which entails four components – a Future of Work Academy for upskilling and leadership development; two Centres of Excellence in AI, Automation and Analytics to encourage the application of these processes to improve efficiencies; and a Google Innovation Lab which leverages our partnership with Google to maximise the benefits and applications of the Google Workspace for our organisation.

Collectively, these measures are designed to equip our people with digital and leadership skills, and real-world experience in deploying tools and technology to maximise efficiencies within their areas of expertise. Our aim is not just teaching new technologies, but building the next generation of leaders that embody a growth mindset of continuous learning and adaptation.

Building on the partnership with Google to advance AI innovation, SingPost is making AI tools more accessible to all employees. How will you go beyond mere access to foster a culture of collaboration where employees feel comfortable using and contributing to these AI-driven solutions within their teams?
Ahmed: SingPost is undergoing a digital transformation that requires laying the foundation and harmonising data before implementing automation, AI, and analytics.

While we are still in the early stages of our AI journey, our approach to cultural transformation and innovation sets a strong foundation to nurture a culture of learning for our people. We encourage our employees to voice ideas and concerns in a safe space. This ‘permission for candour’ is crucial for team learning, innovation, and performance.

Our data-driven approach incorporates employee feedback to shape our Future of Work initiatives, including the curriculum for our academy. We are committed to continuous learning, which naturally extends to emerging technologies like AI.

READ MORE: The art of building a sustainable ‘people and culture’ strategy

We constantly encourage our people to think creatively and innovatively, and we are proactively developing the necessary tools and technologies to support them in their journey. More importantly, we are co-creating our transformation journey with our team members. We actively listen to their input and feedback, and this collaborative approach will be key as we integrate more AI-driven solutions into our future operations.

Our objective is to encourage all employees to embrace a technology-first approach, applying it in their respective fields to enhance our technological capabilities, while elevating the human aspect of our business. This will enable them to concentrate on more valuable roles and progress in their careers within the organisation.