The OCBC Group announced today that it has committed to hiring more than 3,000 people in Singapore this year to provide opportunities for fresh graduates and other job seekers amid the economic and employment uncertainty brought about by COVID-19.

This follows an earlier pledge in March 2020 that the OCBC Group will not layoff any of its 30,000 employees worldwide as a result of the pandemic. The COVID-19 outbreak has caused widespread concerns on the employment front, with many businesses and organisations facing financial setbacks and looking to cut costs. Economists predict that unemployment in Singapore will rise to about 4% as a result of the pandemic. In the recently-released OCBC Financial Impact Survey for COVID-19 conducted by OCBC Bank among 1,000 workers in Singapore, 55% were worried about their job security during this pandemic and 46% were worried they would be retrenched in the next six months.

Hiring across a wide range of skills

Of the 3,000 new jobs, more than 2,100 are full-time roles across various entities of the OCBC Group such as OCBC Bank and its wholly-owned subsidiaries Bank of Singapore and OCBC Securities Pte Ltd, as well as its 88%-owned insurance arm, Great Eastern Holdings. The 2,100 new full-time positions represent about 19% of the Group’s current workforce of about 11,000 employees in Singapore.

The roles to be filled are in areas such as wealth management, corporate banking, risk management, data analytics, operations and technology. The crisis has accelerated digitalisation worldwide and there has been a sharp increase in the number of OCBC customers accessing the various digital channels and solutions. To continue to enable the roll-out of a wide range of digital solutions for both customers and employees, OCBC will also be hiring more technology related roles on top of reskilling and upskilling in digital capabilities and knowledge among its current employees.

The Group will continue to hire and nurture fresh graduates through graduate programmes such as the OCBC Graduate Talent Programme and the Great Eastern Corporate Management Associate Programme. During these customised 24-month programmes, Graduate Talents will go through corporate training to equip themselves with broad-based banking and insurance knowledge and personalised job rotations in various functions to obtain on-the-job exposure to relevant banking and insurance operations to prepare them for their roles.

Nurturing talents

The remaining 900 roles are a combination of traineeship and internship positions.

OCBC will offer more than 500 traineeship positions to university and polytechnic graduates under the SGUnited Traineeships Programme in areas such as corporate banking, data and technology.

Another 400 internship positions will be made available to university and polytechnic students to provide insights into the banking and insurance industry to help prepare them for the workforce, as part of OCBC’s commitment to nurture young talents for the long-term benefit of the banking industry and the community at large.

On top of that, OCBC will continue to offer traineeship positions through the Technology in Finance Immersion Programme (TFIP) to help jobseekers who are looking for a career switch in new technology areas such as Cloud Computing, Cybersecurity, and Full Stack Development, within the financial services sector.

Group Chief Executive Officer Samuel Tsien said: “We are committed to helping Singaporeans ride out this extremely difficult period. By creating and protecting jobs, we contribute towards boosting disposable incomes and consumer confidence. Both are much needed to reignite the economy.

“Upon the very onset of the outbreak, in March, we assured our 30,000 employees across the OCBC Group that no one would be left without a job as a consequence of this outbreak. We have also not frozen hiring despite the significant slowdown in economic activities globally. For young adults who are joining the workforce, we know that this is an especially uncertain and trying period.

“We will offer internships, traineeships and graduate talent programmes, and continue to work with various partners and government bodies to ensure that those new to the workforce can gain a strong foundation through these programmes. For mid-career professionals, we have opportunities in wealth management, corporate and commercial banking, compliance and several other functions across the Group.

“Over the past few months, we have seen how quickly a pandemic can evolve and how unpredictably events can unfold. Yet, though COVID-19’s impact on the economy has been severe, this crisis will come to an end. When confronted with crises in the past, we have persevered, learned and adapted, then emerged stronger. We will do the same again – and play our rightful part in not just saving lives, but saving livelihoods as well.”