Tan Su Shan appointed as Deputy CEO

She will succeed Piyush Gupta as CEO in March 2025

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

As a bank born and bred in diverse Asia, we embrace diversity, equity and inclusion to continue to attract the best people, build the best teams and produce the best work.

At DBS, we firmly believe that our continued success is made possible by our employees. We are committed to building the long-term careers of our people, helping them Live Fulfilled and enabling them to “Be the Best, Be the Change and Be the Difference” to create impactful outcomes for our customers and communities. Learn more about our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policy.

Our Diversity

Recognising the diversity of our global workforce, we are intentional about providing equitable opportunities and building an inclusive culture where all employees are treated with dignity and respected, cared for and valued.

Unconscious Bias Training

Beyond demographic diversity, we also embrace experiential and cognitive diversity when building our teams, and endeavour to equip employees with the skills to recognise, understand and manage hidden biases across different diversity dimensions through unconscious bias training.

Diverse Representation in Leadership

Women make up 41% of our senior management and drive our largest businesses and functions across the bank.

At Board level, we have a Board Diversity Policy that ensures the appropriate balance of perspectives, skills and experience on the Board.

PROMOTING EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

We are committed to providing equitable opportunities for our DBS employees to be their best at work and in life. We adopt a data-driven approach to measure our progress and design our policies and programmes.

Recruitment

We hire people based on skills, experience or ability to perform the job, regardless of age, race, gender, religion, marital status and family responsibilities, or disability. We uphold the Tripartite Alliance for Fair & Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) that are a set of eight standards covering various aspects of fair employment.

Pay Equity

The overall gender pay gap across our six core markets, adjusted for ranks and locations, is small at 1.4%. We are committed to regularly reviewing our compensation practices to ensure our pay is fair and equitable.

Flexible Work Arrangements & Flexible Benefits

We recognise that the needs of our employees evolve depending on life stage and personal circumstances and are committed to support their health, wellbeing, family needs with flexible benefits. As a bank, we also offer exclusive banking privileges for staff to support their financial wellness.

Our flexible work arrangements empower employees to manage both professional and personal responsibilities at different life stages:

Hybrid Working: Flexibility to Work-from-Home (WFH) for up to 40% time
Up to 100% WFH for six months for employees with a newborn or a newly adopted child, or those who need to care for family members recovering from critical illness or injury
Job Sharing Programme: where one full time role can be performed by two employees

Career Growth

We are committed to building long-term careers for our employees. This is done through our “Triple E” approach by providing the right Education, Exposure, and Experience opportunities.

We offer more than 10,000 learning courses to staff on our very own learning portal. In 2023, we have identified more than 8,100 employees to upskill and reskill, so that they can take on new roles.

To cater to diverse aspirations and growth paths, we launched iGrow, a personalised career companion for every DBS employee. iGrow uses Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to help employees identify future career aspirations, and the skills required to reach these goals. It can also identify suitable roles employees can move into as part of the DBS’ internal mobility programmes.

Building an Inclusive Culture

We are committed to nurturing an inclusive culture in DBS where our people are empowered to drive change and make a positive difference to others. We shape culture by design, build communities, and support employees in creating a safe and inclusive workplace.

Deepening Local-Foreign Integration

With the support of National Integration Council (Singapore Ministry of Community, Culture and Youth), DBS launched the Singapore Immersion Programme in 2021 with the aim of promoting integration in DBS. Foreign colleagues attend the programme alongside Singaporean colleagues to learn together, exchange perspectives and build meaningful connections. Many participants have also been inspired to actively volunteer in the local community.

To share our learnings and support other organisations keen on advancing their integration efforts, we have published a guide titled Building an Inclusive Culture: Deepening Local-Foreign Integration with the support of the National Integration Council. The guide compiles the integration experiences of six different organisations and serves as a resource to advance integration at the workplace. Download the guide here.

Social Learning Communities

In collaboration with Lean In, a global community dedicated to fostering workplace inclusion and advancing diverse leadership, we launched DBS Lean In Circles in 2021. These Circles are a safe space for colleagues to meet regularly to mentor, support one another, and have honest conversations on topics like Leadership, Work & Family, and Challenging Gender Bias. Today, we have over 600 employees participating in the Circles across our core markets.