Both DBS Bank and OCBC have been ranked amongst the 10 most ideal employers for women in Asia, with DBS also being ranked highly for men.
The two banks sit alongside some of the world’s largest international firms such as Google, Goldman Sachs and Citi in the latest
2016 eFinancialCareers Ideal Employer survey.
The survey was conducted between October and December 2015 and polled around 6,500 finance professionals across the world.
Within Asia, it highlighted dramatic differences between men and women when seeking the most attractive companies to work for.
The top ten rankings for male and female staff in Asia are listed below:
| Rank |
Female |
Male |
| 1 |
Google |
Goldman Sachs |
| 2 |
Goldman Sachs |
J.P. Morgan |
| 3 |
J.P. Morgan |
Google |
| 4 |
DBS Bank |
Morgan Stanley |
| 5 |
Credit Suisse |
UBS |
| 6 |
Citi |
Credit Suisse |
| 7 |
UBS |
Citi |
| 8 |
Morgan Stanley |
DBS Bank |
| 9 |
OCBC |
HSBC |
| 10 |
HSBC |
BlackRock |
Globally, both Singapore banks performed worse overall. For women, DBS Bank scored 16th place while OCBC ranked equal 24th. For men, DBS Bank was 18th while OCBC didn’t rank in the top 30.
Neil Clark, marketing director for global engagement at eFinancialCareers, said competitive salaries were the reason why the two banks were seen as more attractive to women than men.
Salaries for female financial professionals at DBS Bank compared favourably to those at international firms such as Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan, he told
The Business Times. This was the most important area for women, however other softer areas such manageable working hours also scored highly.
For men though, the bank was a long way behind with regards to salary perception and scored even lower in other qualities.
DBS spokeswoman Edna Koh told
The Business Times that the firm’s ‘gender blind’ policies may have indirectly caused the different perceptions between the sexes.
“When HR and talent-management processes are gender-bias free, as it is with our organisation, women perhaps notice it more than the men,” she said.
For both males and females in Asia, the top qualities linked to an attractive workplace were as follows (with the percentage in brackets equalling the number of respondents listing that quality as most important):
- Competitive salary (81%)
- Positive culture (78%)
- Challenging/interesting work (71%)
- Opportunities for promotion (70%)
- Strong executive leadership (68%)
- Financial performance of the firm (68%)
- Competitive bonus (68%)
For financial professionals in Singapore, the tight labour market has pushed competitive salary to the forefront of what job seekers of both sexes are looking for in new employers. This effect is more pronounced for men than women however.
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