Safety Culture Isn't a Compliance Program. It's One of the Foundations of Employee Happiness. | Written by Ryan Mitchell The Wellbeing Paradox We have never talked more about employee wellbeing than we do today. Organizations invest billions in wellness programs, engagement initiatives, mental health support, flexible working arrangements, and employee experience strategies. Yet despite this unprecedented focus, employee engagement remains stubbornly low across much of the world. That contradiction should force leaders to ask an important question: are we focusing on the right things? Employee wellbeing, mental health, psychological safety, engagement, belonging, and workplace culture have moved from the margins of corporate strategy into the boardroom. Leaders increasingly recognize that organizational performance is inseparable from the experience of the people who deliver it. This shift is long overdue and should be celebrated. In many respects, worker welfare today is where occupational safety was several decades ago: evolving from a compliance requirement into a strategic business discipline. Yet despite this progress, many organizations still have a blind spot. We continue to manage employee wellbeing as though it exists in separate categories. Mental health sits with one team. Employee engagement sits with another. Worker welfare is managed elsewhere. Safety is often viewed as an operational function, while HR owns employee experience and compliance teams oversee governance. The problem is that employees do not experience work this way. Employees do not separate safety from wellbeing. They do not separate leadership from culture. They do not distinguish between physical safety, psychological safety, worker welfare, trust, and respect in the same way organizations do. They experience all of it as one reality. The Question Employees Really Ask Over the years, I have had the opportunity to oversee large-scale quality, health, safety, environment, and worker welfare programs across diverse industries and workforces. One observation has remained remarkably consistent regardless of sector, geography, or workforce demographics: employees rarely view wellbeing through the organizational structures leaders create. Instead, they judge their experience through a far simpler lens: “Does this company genuinely care about me?” That question is answered not by corporate slogans or engagement campaigns, but through daily experiences. It is answered when an employee raises a concern and receives a response. It is answered when a supervisor takes time to listen. It is answered when a hazard is fixed before someone is harmed. It is answered when workloads are managed responsibly. It is answered when accommodation standards are improved, welfare concerns are addressed, training is provided, or a worker is supported through a difficult period. Each of these actions communicates something powerful. Each tells employees whether they are viewed as people or merely resources. This is why I have become increasingly convinced that safety culture remains one of the most underestimated contributors to employee happiness. Not safety in its narrowest sense. Not compliance. Not audits. Not paperwork. Safety culture. The distinction matters. Compliance Doesn't Create Trust Most organizations can demonstrate compliance. Policies can be written. Training records can be completed. Audits can be passed. Certifications can be obtained. Compliance is important and necessary. However, compliance alone does not create trust, and trust is ultimately what employees are seeking. An organization can be fully compliant while employees remain disengaged, exhausted, reluctant to speak up, or unconvinced that leadership genuinely values their wellbeing. This is far more common than many leaders would like to admit. Despite unprecedented investment in employee wellbeing and engagement initiatives, Gallup's State of the Global Workplace research reports that only around 20% of employees globally are actively engaged at work. At the same time, Gallup estimates that managers account for approximately 70% of the variation in employee engagement levels, highlighting the critical role leadership behaviour plays in shaping employee experience. Conversely, organizations that build strong cultures of trust often discover that safety, engagement, retention, and performance improve together because they are all influenced by the same underlying factor: the relationship between people and the organization they work for. Research consistently shows that employees who believe their employer genuinely cares about their wellbeing are significantly more engaged, more loyal, and more likely to advocate for their organization. The lesson is clear. Trust is not built through policies, programs, or corporate messaging alone. It is built through the daily experiences that shape whether employees feel protected, respected, heard, and valued. Why Trust Matters More Than Ever This relationship is becoming increasingly important as workplaces continue to evolve. Today's employees are asking different questions than previous generations. They are not simply asking whether a workplace is safe. They are asking whether it is supportive. Whether it is respectful. Whether it is fair. Whether they feel heard. Whether leaders can be trusted. Whether the organization's values are reflected in its actions. In many respects, these are not wellbeing questions or safety questions. They are trust questions. Psychological safety has emerged as one of the defining workplace topics of our time for precisely this reason. Employees want environments where they can raise concerns, admit mistakes, challenge assumptions, and contribute ideas without fear of embarrassment, blame, or retaliation. Yet even as organizations embrace these concepts, many continue to underestimate the role traditional safety culture plays in creating them. Safety Culture as a Business Advantage A workplace that demonstrates genuine care for worker welfare is often the same workplace that achieves stronger engagement, lower turnover, and higher levels of trust. Increasingly, that trust extends beyond employees. Clients, investors, regulators, and communities are paying closer attention to how organizations treat their people. Companies that genuinely care for their workforce are increasingly viewed as better partners, lower-risk suppliers, and stronger custodians of ESG commitments. While difficult to quantify on a tender scorecard, the reputational value is real. These outcomes are not coincidental. They emerge from the same cultural foundations. This is why I believe organizations should stop treating safety, wellbeing, worker welfare, and employee experience as separate conversations. The future lies in integration. One Workplace, One Employee Experience For too long, organizations have measured engagement through surveys, wellbeing through programs, safety through incident rates, and worker welfare through compliance assessments. While each of these measures has value, they often fail to capture how employees actually experience the workplace. Employees do not wake up each morning and mentally separate their wellbeing into organizational reporting categories. They experience the workplace as a single ecosystem where leadership behaviour, working conditions, safety culture, welfare standards, workload, trust, recognition, and support all interact simultaneously. When viewed through that lens, safety culture becomes far more than an operational requirement. It becomes one of the clearest expressions of organizational care. Every time a leader addresses a concern, they strengthen trust. Every time an employee feels comfortable speaking up, psychological safety grows. Every time worker welfare is prioritized, employees receive a powerful signal about their value to the organization. Every time leadership chooses people over convenience, culture is reinforced. Employee Happiness Begins with Care The organizations that will succeed in the future are not necessarily those with the most sophisticated wellbeing strategies or the most comprehensive employee engagement programs. They will be the organizations that recognize the connections between all these elements and manage them as part of a single people strategy. The conversation about employee happiness is evolving, and rightly so. Increasingly, leaders understand that happy employees are more engaged, more productive, more innovative, and more likely to remain with an organization. What remains less understood is how those outcomes are created. Employee happiness does not begin with wellness programs. It begins with trust. Trust begins with care. And care is demonstrated through actions, not intentions. Perhaps that is why safety culture deserves a much larger role in the employee happiness conversation than it typically receives. Not because safety is missing from wellbeing frameworks. In many organizations it is already present. Rather, because we still tend to underestimate its influence. When employees believe their organization genuinely cares about their wellbeing, their welfare, their health, their safety, and their voice, something remarkable happens. Engagement improves. Relationships strengthen. Confidence grows. Trust deepens. In other words, people flourish. For decades, organizations have asked employees to trust them. The most successful organizations of the future will understand that trust is not something employees are asked to give. It is something organizations must earn. They earn it through leadership. They earn it through action. They earn it through the daily decisions that demonstrate whether people genuinely matter. Employees do not experience safety, wellbeing, worker welfare, psychological safety, and workplace culture as separate initiatives. They experience them as evidence of organizational care. And perhaps that is where employee happiness truly begins. References Gallup. State of the Global Workplace Report 2025 Gallup Workplace Research. The Manager's Role in Employee Engagement Gallup. Employee Wellbeing and Organizational Care Research

The Authority of Social Contribution – Ma'an has launched a Life Skills programme in Al Ain, pairing AI and digital training with a family-first philosophy. For HR leaders watching the region's talent pipeline, it's a signal worth reading. | Written by Riya Malhotra While most conversations about future skills happen inside corporate L&D budgets, one of the more interesting talent-development experiments in the region this week is coming from outside the workplace altogether. The Authority of Social Contribution – Ma'an, part of the Department of Community Development – Abu Dhabi, has launched its Life Skills programme in the Al Ain Region, a flagship initiative built to equip young people with the practical, technical and creative capabilities they'll need to thrive in a rapidly shifting economy. The launch lands squarely within the UAE Year of Family, and that framing is no accident. For a publication that spends most of its time on what happens inside organisations, the programme is a useful reminder that the workforce of 2030 is being shaped right now — in community halls, volunteer-led sessions and youth workshops, long before anyone files a first job application. What the programme actually does The Life Skills programme centres on the capabilities that increasingly separate the employable from the left-behind: hands-on training in areas such as digital media and artificial intelligence. Rather than rely on a small cadre of paid facilitators, Ma'an is mobilising more than 100 volunteers to lead sessions designed to foster innovation, creativity and community engagement. The scale is deliberately human. The programme is built to reach more than 180 young members of the community, with the stated aim of strengthening their readiness to navigate digital transformation and grow into a generation capable of creating positive impact around them. The logic is one HR leaders will recognise immediately: close the skills gap early, and you widen the pool of genuinely employable talent later. By bridging those gaps and improving future employability, the initiative is positioned to help young people contribute actively to their communities, and, by extension, to Abu Dhabi's broader social and economic development. A family-centric model, by design What distinguishes the programme from a standard skills bootcamp is the frame around it. Ma'an has positioned Life Skills as part of a wider portfolio of family-focused initiatives intended to strengthen family cohesion, wellbeing and long-term prosperity, treating the family unit, rather than the individual learner, as the foundation on which resilience is built. "During the Year of Family, we are committed to aligning our efforts with the national agenda to strengthen family empowerment and advance initiatives that enhance their wellbeing and longevity," said His Excellency Abdullah Al Ameri, Director General of the Authority of Social Contribution – Ma'an. The Life Skills programme reflects these efforts by activating specialised volunteers to create opportunities for the youth as well as provide the tools and knowledge needed to play an active role in advancing community development. It's a philosophy that maps neatly onto a debate happening in workplaces across the Gulf: whether wellbeing should be designed around the employee in isolation, or around the employee as one part of a family system. Ma'an has placed its bet firmly on the latter. Why it matters for HR leaders Three threads in this launch are worth pulling for anyone leading people strategy in the UAE and KSA. First, AI and digital literacy are now entry-level expectations, not advanced ones. A community programme aimed at teenagers is teaching artificial intelligence and digital media. The implication for employers is plain: the cohort entering the workforce in a few years will arrive with a different baseline, and onboarding, capability frameworks and early-career development will need to keep pace. Second, volunteering is quietly becoming a leadership-development engine. More than 100 volunteers are stepping into facilitation, mentoring and programme-leadership roles. For organisations thinking about purpose, retention and the kind of work that keeps senior talent engaged, structured community contribution is increasingly part of the answer, not a side activity to it. Third, the family-first model is a workplace signal. As national agendas increasingly anchor wellbeing in family cohesion, the most forward-looking employers are likely to follow, extending wellbeing strategies beyond the individual to the household around them. By investing in youth development within a family-centric framework, Ma'an continues to position the family as the fundamental pillar in raising future generations, and, in the process, is helping shape a generation that is skilled, engaged and ready to lead. For HR leaders, the takeaway is simple: the talent pipeline starts earlier, and reaches wider, than the org chart suggests.

Global commodities group Trafigura has named Sarah Wohnlich Kane as its new Chief Human Resources Officer, bringing more than 25 years of international HR and talent leadership experience to the role. | Written by Tripti Mehta Trafigura has appointed Sarah Wohnlich Kane as its new Chief Human Resources Officer, effective immediately. The appointment strengthens the commodities group's leadership team at a time when the company is placing renewed focus on talent strategy, organisational capability, and long-term workforce growth. Kane brings more than 25 years of international leadership experience across human resources, organisational development, talent strategy, executive consulting, and business transformation. Her career spans both consulting and industry, with senior roles across the consulting, mining, and commodities sectors, where she has led large-scale people and organisational change initiatives. Before joining Trafigura, Kane served as Global Head of Human Capital for Glencore Copper from 2022 to 2024. Earlier in her career, she held the role of Head of Group Organisational Development at Glencore, where she oversaw leadership development, talent management, and organisational design across the business. Announcing the move on LinkedIn, Kane described it as the start of a new chapter in her career, noting that Trafigura's scale and global reach create an environment where leadership, adaptability, and people capability matter more than ever. She added that she is looking forward to working with colleagues across the business to strengthen the foundations that support talent and culture. For Trafigura, the appointment reflects a broader pattern seen across global commodities and trading firms in 2026, where human capital leadership is increasingly viewed as central to navigating periods of growth and transformation. As organisations scale operations across geographies, the ability to align talent strategy with business strategy is becoming a defining factor in long-term competitiveness. Kane's appointment also signals continuity in leadership thinking shaped by the consulting and mining sectors, where structured organisational change and workforce planning have long been priorities. Her experience positions her to bring that discipline to Trafigura's global HR function as the company continues to expand. Source: Sarah Wohnlich Kane via LinkedIn

Winner: Best Company to Work For – Medium Enterprise | Employee Happiness Awards UAE 2025 | Written by Riya Malhotra In an industry built on trust, Dubai National Insurance (DNI) believes that trust must begin within its own organisation. When DNI was recognised as the Best Company to Work For – Medium Enterprise at the Employee Happiness Awards UAE 2025, the award reflected far more than a successful HR programme. It acknowledged a long-term commitment to creating a workplace where employees feel supported, connected, and empowered to grow. For an organisation with more than three decades of presence in the UAE insurance sector, employee happiness is not treated as an initiative. It is embedded into the company culture, influencing everything from leadership development and learning opportunities to wellness programmes and community engagement. Putting People at the Centre of Growth As industries continue to evolve, attracting and retaining talent requires more than competitive compensation. Employees increasingly seek meaningful development opportunities and a workplace that invests in their future. At DNI, this belief has translated into structured learning and development programmes designed to build both technical expertise and future leadership capabilities. Through partnerships with institutions such as the Emirates Institute of Finance and dedicated leadership development initiatives, employees are encouraged to continuously expand their skills and prepare for new responsibilities. The company’s approach extends beyond traditional training. Career development is viewed as a shared journey, with employees given access to learning pathways that support both individual ambitions and organisational goals. Winning the ‘Best Company to Work For’ award is a proud milestone for DNI and a reflection of our unwavering belief that our people are our greatest strength. We have built a culture where employees feel valued, empowered, and inspired to grow. – Charbel Yazbeck, Acting CEO, Dubai National Insurance Creating Moments That Matter Employee engagement at DNI is driven by the understanding that workplace culture is built through everyday experiences. A dedicated Happiness Committee plays a central role in bringing employees together through wellness programmes, cultural celebrations, sporting events, social activities, and recognition initiatives. Throughout the year, employees participate in activities ranging from wellness talks, health screenings, meditation and yoga sessions, and women’s wellness events to bowling tournaments, sports festivals, cultural celebrations, karaoke evenings, and team-building experiences.These initiatives are designed not only to improve engagement but also to foster a sense of belonging across a diverse workforce. The impact has been significant. DNI reported a 22 per cent improvement in employee satisfaction, alongside an impressive 98 per cent participation rate in employee engagement initiatives. Linking Development with Retention Many organisations invest in learning. Fewer successfully connect learning with long-term retention. DNI has focused on ensuring that employee development translates into meaningful career progression. Through targeted development initiatives, the company recorded a 15 per cent increase in retention among employees participating in structured development programmes. This approach reinforces a simple but powerful message: employees are more likely to remain with organisations that actively invest in their growth. The company also encourages cross-functional collaboration, giving employees opportunities to contribute ideas, participate in innovation-focused activities, and engage directly with leadership. An innovation lab and strong leadership involvement have helped create an environment where employees feel heard and empowered to contribute beyond their immediate roles. A Culture Strengthened by Community DNI’s people-first philosophy extends beyond the workplace. Employees regularly participate in CSR initiatives, community outreach programmes, blood donation drives, and partnerships supporting people of determination and community organisations. These activities strengthen employees’ connection to a broader purpose while reinforcing the company’s commitment to social responsibility. At the same time, regular departmental training sessions, professional development workshops, and recognition programmes ensure employees continue to learn, grow, and feel appreciated throughout their careers. Building a Sustainable Future Through People For DNI, employee happiness is not measured solely by engagement scores or participation rates. It is reflected in the organisation’s ability to create an environment where people feel valued, supported, and motivated to succeed. “This recognition reflects our structured and consistent efforts to enhance employee well-being, engagement, and professional development,” says Hassan Al Khuwaildi, Head of Business Support and Chairman of the Employee Happiness Committee. We remain committed to strengthening our people-centric culture and enabling our employees to build meaningful and successful careers with DNI. As organisations across the UAE compete for talent in an increasingly dynamic market, DNI’s success offers a clear lesson: when employee happiness becomes a strategic priority, business performance, retention, and culture grow stronger together. For Dubai National Insurance, being named the Best Company to Work For is not the finish line. It is validation of a workplace philosophy that continues to put people at the centre of progress.

Microsoft’s top boss says AI agents need identities, sandboxes and governance policies, and that means HR and people leaders have a new brief. | Written by Tripti Mehta Satya Nadella, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, has issued a challenge to organisations that goes well beyond the IT department, arguing that AI agents operating inside businesses must be governed with the same seriousness applied to human employees. Speaking on an episode of Reid Hoffman's Possible podcast, Nadella made the case that the infrastructure built around managing people, including identity, permissions, accountability, oversight, must now be extended to AI. A Framework That HR Leaders Will Recognise "You need to give them identities, you need to give them sandboxes, then you need to set policies to govern them," Nadella told Hoffman. The language will be familiar to anyone who has ever onboarded a new hire, defined a job scope, or built a compliance framework. Nadella was candid about the operational reality. He personally runs as many as 100 AI coding agents at once, and managing them without the right structure is overwhelming. "The cognitive load on me managing this is so high," he said, an admission that even the CEO of one of the world's largest technology companies finds ungoverned AI agents difficult to work alongside. What This Means for People Teams The implications for HR and people functions are direct. As AI agents take on tasks across recruitment, performance management, employee communications, and workforce planning, the question of who owns their governance inside an organisation becomes urgent. If agents have no defined identity, no policy boundary, and no audit trail, accountability gaps will follow. Nadella's framing repositions this as a people and culture challenge as much as a technology one. Building the structures to govern AI agents responsibly requires the same thinking that underpins good people management: clarity of role, boundaries of authority, and mechanisms for oversight. The Workforce Is Expanding Nadella's broader vision is of a workforce in which human capital and what he calls "token capital" are deeply intertwined. Every employee, in this future, manages a network of AI agents alongside their human colleagues. The organisations that will navigate this well are those that treat that expansion of the workforce seriously, with governance, training, and cultural readiness built in from the start rather than retrofitted after problems emerge. For people leaders, the message is clear: the brief has expanded, and the time to act on it is now. Sources: Satya Nadella, Possible Podcast with Reid Hoffman, Business Insider, Windows Central, Firstpost.

Common hiring assumptions continue to limit women’s career progression before it even begins. For organisations serious about building stronger leadership pipelines, the real opportunity starts much earlier: in how talent is identified, assessed, and recognised. | Written by Eng. Hamza AlKhalili Eng. Hamza AlKhalili, Training & Digital Transformation Director, AlHaya Medical Company Ltd. Let's be honest about the current Saudi job market: top talent is no longer evaluating opportunities based solely on salary packages. They are looking for a future. As the Kingdom continues its rapid transformation, ambitious professionals are asking themselves a critical question: Can I grow here, or will I eventually hit a ceiling? For organisations seeking to retain their best people, the answer lies in rethinking how they approach learning and development. Training should no longer be viewed as a corporate obligation. It should be treated as a human experience that helps individuals build meaningful careers. When employees can clearly connect what they are learning today with where they are heading tomorrow, they are far more likely to invest their long-term energy in the organisation Too many workplace learning programmes still feel like compliance exercises, mandatory courses, rigid platforms, and generic content that employees complete simply to earn a certificate. Real growth, however, is personal. Consider the young Saudi professionals entering the workforce today. They are not looking to simply occupy a role; they want to contribute, develop, and create impact. The moment a manager stops asking, “What training should we assign?” and starts asking, “Where do you want your career to be in three years?” the dynamic changes entirely. Learning becomes more than a requirement. It becomes a shared investment between employer and employee. Building this type of culture goes beyond HR policies. It is shaped by everyday leadership behaviours. If employees view learning as an activity they must squeeze into evenings or weekends, it is unlikely to strengthen engagement or loyalty. However, when managers actively discuss development goals, recommend mentors, and provide opportunities through stretch assignments, they send a powerful message: your growth matters. In a culture where trust and strong relationships remain central to workplace success, feeling genuinely supported by leadership is often what encourages employees to stay for the long term. People stay where they feel valued, not only for what they contribute today, but for who they can become tomorrow. Equally important is recognising that one-size-fits-all learning programmes no longer deliver meaningful results. A financial analyst and a digital marketer have very different aspirations, skill requirements, and career paths. Engagement increases when learning is personalised through a combination of hands-on experiences, mentorship opportunities, and development resources tailored to individual goals. Yet learning alone is not enough. Employees who invest time and effort into developing new skills need to see a clear connection between that growth and future opportunities. Whether through expanded responsibilities, promotion pathways, or involvement in high-impact projects, career progression must remain visible. When people can clearly connect what they are learning today with where they are heading tomorrow, they are far more likely to invest their long-term energy in the organisation. Organisations must also create environments where experimentation is encouraged and mistakes are viewed as part of the learning process. Growth is rarely linear. In an economy increasingly driven by innovation and transformation, employees cannot be expected to take risks if they fear failure. The strongest leaders understand that progress is not measured solely by perfect outcomes. It is also reflected in the willingness to learn, adapt, and improve. Ultimately, employee retention is about connection. People remain with organisations where they feel seen, supported, and empowered to grow. When companies create cultures that genuinely invest in the development of their people, they do more than retain talent, they unlock its full potential. In a market where skilled professionals have more choices than ever, growth may well become the most powerful retention strategy of all.

The MoU goes beyond a signing ceremony; it is a structured commitment to closing the gap between what students learn and what employers actually need. | Written by Tripti Mehta Sharjah Islamic Bank and the University of Sharjah have signed a Memorandum of Understanding establishing a formal framework for cooperation across financial literacy, professional development, practical training, and talent acquisition. For HR and people leaders, the detail that matters is not the partnership itself, it is what the partnership is designed to fix. The gap between academic preparation and workplace readiness remains one of the most consistently cited challenges in graduate hiring across the UAE. This MoU is a direct attempt to address that at the source. What the Partnership Actually Covers Under the agreement, both institutions will collaborate on internship and field training programmes, participation in career and employment fairs, and the development of specialised graduate development and talent acquisition initiatives. Lectures, workshops, and awareness sessions on financial literacy, banking awareness, and consumer protection will also be delivered under the framework. The collaboration will additionally explore banking solutions and benefits for university students, academic staff, and administrative employees, extending the relationship beyond talent pipelines into everyday financial wellbeing. What the Signatories Said H.E. Mohamed Abdalla, CEO of Sharjah Islamic Bank, described the agreement as "the beginning of a broader direction to strengthen collaboration with academic institutions across the country," with a focus on financial literacy, training, and professional development. He framed the initiative as part of the bank's wider commitment to building bridges between academic education and practical application. H.E. Prof. Esameldin Agamy, Chancellor of the University of Sharjah, linked the partnership to the university's mission to graduate students equipped with both academic knowledge and practical expertise, and to the vision of H.H. Sheikh Sultan bin Ahmed Al Qasimi to prepare national talent in line with real labour market demands. The Bigger Picture This is the first MoU under a broader initiative by Sharjah Islamic Bank to formalise partnerships with universities and colleges across the UAE. The signal is clear: the bank is not approaching national talent development as a CSR footnote but as a structural priority, one that requires institutional relationships, not one-off graduate drives. For HR professionals in financial services and beyond, the model is worth watching. Employer-university partnerships built around structured training, career integration, and financial literacy programming represent one of the more effective levers for building workforce readiness before graduates reach the hiring stage.

Held on 10 April at Shangri-La Singapore, the inaugural Employee Happiness Awards Singapore & Malaysia brought together organisations from across the region for an evening dedicated to recognising people-first workplaces. | Written by Riya Malhotra The first-ever Employee Happiness Awards Singapore & Malaysia marked an important milestone for the platform’s growing regional footprint. Hosted at Shangri-La Singapore on 10 April, the gala brought together HR leaders, business leaders and workplace culture champions for an evening focused on recognising organisations that continue to prioritise employee happiness through meaningful people practices and measurable impact. The event welcomed more than 200 attendees and recognised organisations across multiple categories, reflecting the growing focus on employee wellbeing, leadership and workplace culture across Southeast Asia. Among the standout winners were organisations whose recognition reflected very different approaches to building stronger workplace experiences, from employee wellness and internships to leadership succession and retention. Razer Inc. recognised for building strong people foundations Technology leader Razer Inc. was recognised with Gold in Best Internship Program and Silver in HR Team of the Year. The dual recognition reflects the company’s continued investment in talent development while also strengthening the systems and teams that support employee experience at scale. Internship programmes increasingly play an important role in shaping early career experiences, introducing future talent to workplace culture while also helping organisations build stronger long-term pipelines. Recognition in HR Team of the Year also highlights the role internal HR teams continue to play in building workplace engagement and creating culture with intention. Nanyang Technological University recognised for employee wellbeing Nanyang Technological University received Gold in Best Employee Wellness Initiative, recognising its focus on supporting employee wellbeing across the institution. Across workplaces in Singapore and Malaysia, employee wellness continues to evolve into a broader workplace priority. Recognition in this category reflects how organisations are increasingly connecting wellbeing with engagement, belonging and long-term organisational performance. Juristech recognised for employee retention strategy Malaysia-based fintech company Juristech was awarded Gold in Best Retention Initiative. Retention remains one of the most closely watched people priorities across the region, and recognition in this category highlights the growing importance of creating environments where employees feel supported, engaged and motivated to build long-term careers. BREGO Life Sciences recognised for leadership succession Healthcare company BREGO Life Sciences received Gold in Best Leadership Succession Strategy. Leadership continuity continues to be a defining focus for growing organisations, particularly in sectors navigating rapid transformation. Recognition in this category highlights the importance of developing future leaders internally while building long-term organisational resilience. A stronger focus on people-first workplaces in Southeast Asia The inaugural Singapore & Malaysia edition reflected a wider shift already visible across the region: organisations are placing employee happiness and workplace culture much closer to business strategy. From wellness initiatives and talent development to leadership succession and retention, this year’s winners highlighted that employee happiness is shaped through consistent, everyday decisions that strengthen culture and create better employee experiences over time. As the Employee Happiness Awards continues expanding across regions, the Singapore & Malaysia edition marked an encouraging first chapter, one built around organisations proving that people-first workplaces continue to shape stronger businesses.

Common hiring assumptions continue to limit women’s career progression before it even begins. For organisations serious about building stronger leadership pipelines, the real opportunity starts much earlier: in how talent is identified, assessed, and recognised. | Written by Magdolin Boukhary Magdolin Boukhary, Mentor, Saudi Leadership Society Most organisations say they want to hire and promote more women into leadership. The intent is genuine, the diversity statements are polished, and recruiting budgets are approved. Yet progress continues to stall. The issue rarely begins in the boardroom where promotions are debated. It starts much earlier, in quieter moments: when an in-house recruiter scans a résumé, when a hiring manager forms a first impression in an interview, or when a shortlist is narrowed down based on instinct. The assumptions made in those moments can quietly place women into smaller boxes long before their leadership potential is ever openly discussed. It is worth being precise about who shapes these early decisions, because it is rarely one role acting alone. In-house recruiters and talent acquisition teams control the top of the funnel: deciding which résumés make it past the first screen, who gets the initial call, and who reaches the shortlist. Hiring managers then shape what follows: leading interviews, weighing panel feedback, and making the final hiring decision. Bias at either stage is enough to lose a strong candidate. More often, the two stages reinforce each other. A recruiter’s hesitation around a career gap becomes a hiring manager’s lingering doubt. A manager’s preference for someone “polished” becomes the recruiter’s screening filter in the next round. Fixing one stage without the other simply moves the leak. High-potential women are routinely misread, not because recruiters or hiring managers are acting in bad faith, but because the shortcuts many hiring processes rely on were built around a narrow definition of ambition and leadership. Here are five of the most common patterns, and what organisations can do differently. Mistake One: Reading Confidence as Competence Recruiters and hiring managers often equate confidence with capability. The candidate who confidently claims they “transformed an entire department” may land more strongly than someone who explains that their team “worked hard and delivered meaningful results.” Yet women often speak about achievements differently, more collaboratively, and with less emphasis on individual recognition. That difference is not a lack of capability. It is often a communication style shaped by workplace norms and the social penalties women can face when self-promotion is perceived as excessive. When interviewers reward delivery over substance, they risk overlooking candidates with proven results in favour of stronger storytellers. The fix: Evaluate evidence, not delivery. Ask every candidate the same behavioural questions. Probe for specifics: What was the challenge? What did they personally contribute? What changed as a result? Structured interviews reduce bias because they force comparison on substance, not style. Potential is not always the loudest voice in the room. Often, it is the clearest evidence of impact. Mistake Two: Penalising Non-Linear Careers A résumé with a career break, lateral move, or experience in a smaller organisation is still too often read as reduced ambition. Women are more likely than men to have stepped away for caregiving, relocated for family, or taken sideways opportunities to broaden experience. These career paths are often interpreted as gaps rather than what they frequently represent: resilience, adaptability, and broader perspective. The professional who rebuilt a high-performing team after returning to work may have demonstrated more leadership capacity than someone with a perfectly linear career. The fix: Assess trajectory based on how someone used the opportunities available to them, not how tidy the timeline appears. Encourage recruiters and hiring managers to approach breaks and pivots with curiosity rather than suspicion. Mistake Three: The “Culture Fit” Trap “Culture fit” sounds thoughtful. In practice, it often rewards familiarity. When leadership teams or hiring panels are homogeneous, the person who feels “like us” can easily become the preferred choice. That often excludes candidates who bring different perspectives, particularly women who may challenge existing norms in ways the organisation genuinely needs. The irony is clear: companies seeking innovation can unintentionally screen out the very people most likely to drive it. The fix: Replace “culture fit” with “culture contribution.” Define the values that matter in the role, whether that is handling feedback, managing conflict, or collaborating across teams, and assess those directly. Mistake Four: Anchoring Ambition to Self-Description Interviewers often ask candidates where they see themselves in five years and treat the answer as a reliable signal of ambition. But ambition is not always expressed the same way. A man may confidently say he wants the corner office. A woman with equal capability may say she wants to keep growing and take on more responsibility. One answer sounds bolder. The other may be equally ambitious, simply expressed differently. Treating self-description as objective data creates bias before the shortlist is even finalised. The fix: Look at actions over language. Has the candidate taken on stretch assignments? Sought challenging projects? Mentored others? Pushed beyond their comfort zone? Demonstrated initiative remains a stronger predictor of leadership than a polished career vision. Mistake Five: The Likeability Tightrope Women continue to navigate a familiar double bind. Warmth can be read as lacking authority. Assertiveness can be labelled abrasive. The same behaviour that signals executive presence in one candidate may be interpreted differently in another. The result is that women can be penalised for demonstrating exactly the qualities senior roles demand. The fix: Make bias visible during hiring calibration. When a panel describes a woman as “too aggressive,” “too intense,” or “hard to read,” pause and ask whether the same language would be used for a man in the same scenario. Naming the bias often disrupts it. Fixing the System, Not Just the Recruiter Awareness matters. But awareness alone rarely changes outcomes. The organisations making measurable progress are redesigning hiring systems. They standardise interview questions and scoring. They anonymise early-stage applications where possible. They build more diverse interview panels. They track hiring outcomes across every stage of the funnel and review where candidates drop off. Most importantly, they broaden the definition of leadership potential. Potential is not always a confident voice, a straight-line career, or a familiar leadership style. It is the ability to learn, adapt, lead through uncertainty, and create impact, often demonstrated most clearly by people who had to navigate more obstacles simply to get in the room. High-potential women are not hard to find. They are already in talent pipelines, in interview processes, and on recruiter shortlists. The opportunity is not to lower the bar. It is to calibrate the bar to measure the right things.

The law is not in force yet, but the preparation window is now. Employers who wait until 2027 will be building under pressure. | Written by Tripti Mehta Singapore has passed its first legally binding law against workplace discrimination. The Workplace Fairness Act (WFA), enacted in two parts across 2025, converts what were previously voluntary employment guidelines into enforceable legal obligations with a grievance process, a dispute resolution pathway, and real financial penalties for non-compliance. The Act is expected to come into force by end-2027. That may sound distant, but in reality, it is not. What the Act Actually Does Before the WFA, Singapore's employers were governed by the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices, a voluntary framework. The WFA does not replace those guidelines. It sits alongside them, adding legal weight to the most commonly encountered forms of discrimination. The first bill establishes the substantive protections: what is prohibited, who is protected, and what employers must have in place. The second bill sets out how employees can make claims when those protections are breached. Who is Protected and From What The Act prohibits employers from making adverse employment decisions covering hiring, appraisal, training, promotion, and dismissal based on any of five categories of protected characteristics: Age Nationality Sex, marital status, pregnancy status, and caregiving responsibilities Race, religion, and language Disability and mental health conditions These five categories account for more than 95% of all discrimination complaints received by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP). Workplace Fairness Act: Key Facts at a Glance First bill passed January 8, 2025 Second bill passed November 4, 2025 Expected in force End-2027 Discrimination complaints covered More than 95% of all complaints received by MOM and TAFEP Employer obligation Formal internal grievance handling process mandatory for all firms Mediation Mandatory before any claim proceeds to tribunal ECT claims ceiling SGD 250,000 First offence fine Up to SGD 50,000 Repeat offence fine Up to SGD 250,000 TAFEP employer briefings Monthly, ongoing since September 2025 What Employers are Now Required to Have Every firm must put in place a formal internal grievance handling process for workplace discrimination. This is not optional and not dependent on company size. The intention is to create a safe space for issues to be raised and resolved at the firm level before they escalate. What Happens When Internal Resolution Fails If a grievance is not resolved internally, the employee must attempt mediation before any claim can proceed to adjudication. Mediation is mandatory. MOM has confirmed that the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management will handle mediation for claims up to SGD 30,000, with the Singapore Mediation Centre handling higher-value claims, and that mediators are already being trained specifically for workplace discrimination cases. If mediation fails, the employee can bring a claim to the Employment Claims Tribunal for disputes up to SGD 250,000, or to the High Court for higher-value claims. All proceedings are held in private. Legal representation is not permitted at the ECT level, keeping the process more accessible and less adversarial. What Enforcement Looks Like MOM has described its approach as education-first. Enforcement levers are calibrated to severity, ranging from directions to attend educational workshops, to administrative financial penalties, to heavier civil penalties for egregious breaches. Fines go up to SGD 50,000 for a first offence and SGD 250,000 for repeat offences. Why HR Needs to Act Now Minister for Manpower Dr Tan See Leng was direct in his November 2025 parliamentary speech: employers need to review HR processes, workers need to understand their protections, and mediators need to be trained. All of that takes time. The end-2027 implementation date was set specifically to allow adequate preparation, not to defer it. TAFEP has been running monthly WFA briefings for employers since September 2025, and is developing step-by-step guides and templates specifically for smaller businesses. MOM has also indicated it will publish a handbook explaining the law through illustrations and case studies. TAFEP has specifically called on employers to adopt the Tripartite Standard on Recruitment Practices and the Tripartite Standard on Grievance Handling now, as the most direct way to align with WFA requirements while the preparation window is still open. HR Checklist: What to Do Before End-2027 Policies and Processes Review hiring, appraisal, promotion, and dismissal processes against the five protected characteristic categories Establish or formalise a written internal grievance handling process for discrimination complaints Adopt the TAFEP Tripartite Standard on Recruitment Practices Adopt the TAFEP Tripartite Standard on Grievance Handling People and Training Train HR teams and line managers on what constitutes discrimination under the Act Brief leadership on employer obligations and enforcement exposure Register for TAFEP's monthly WFA employer briefings Documentation Ensure all employment decisions,including hiring, appraisals, promotions and dismissals, are documented with clear, objective criteria Review existing employment contracts and offer letters for compliance gaps Ongoing Monitor MOM and TAFEP for the WFA handbook and subsidiary implementation guidelines Set an internal compliance review date at least six months before end-2027 Singapore's approach to workplace fairness has always been gradual and consensus-driven. The WFA continues that tradition but it also marks a clear line. What was once a matter of good practice is becoming a matter of law. For HR leaders, the question is not whether to prepare, but how much runway they want before the deadline arrives. Source: Ministry of Manpower (MOM); Singapore Statutes Online; Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP)

As companies race to cut costs in the name of AI, many are discovering an uncomfortable truth: automation without thoughtful workforce design creates more disruption than value. The issue isn’t AI itself, it’s how leaders are choosing to implement it. | Written by Preethy Suresh The headlines have been relentless. IBM announced roughly 8,000 job cuts in 2024, with HR functions specifically named as targets for AI replacement. Salesforce eliminated 4,000 customer support roles in 2025, with CEO Marc Benioff publicly attributing the cuts to AI-driven productivity gains. Duolingo announced plans to phase out human contractors in favour of automation. Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and Google, the pattern has repeated across the sector, each announcement framed as a confident step into an AI-enabled future. Klarna replaced 700 customer service agents. And the list continues to grow. But the reversals have already begun. Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski later told Bloomberg the company had “focused too much on efficiency and cost. The result was lower quality, and that’s not sustainable.” Klarna has since begun hiring again. though notably through a gig-style model rather than full-time employment. The 700 jobs that were eliminated haven’t exactly returned; they’ve been restructured as contract work, often at lower pay. Two years ago, that might have been seen as an isolated admission. In 2026, it is increasingly looking like a broader pattern. The number every boardroom should be paying attention to Orgvue’s 2025 survey of 1,163 senior business leaders across eight countries found that 55% of organisations that made AI-driven redundancies later admitted they had made the wrong call. Around 34% reported employees leaving as a direct result of how AI was introduced into the business. Forrester’s Future of Work report predicts that by the end of 2026, nearly half of all AI-related layoffs may be reversed in some form, often through offshore hiring, contract roles or lower-paid positions. And the IBM survey referenced by Fortune paints an even starker picture: only one in four enterprise AI projects delivers the return originally expected. So why does the pattern continue? Why does every quarter still bring another wave of AI-led layoffs when evidence from previous rounds already suggests caution? Because, in many cases, the decisions are not really about AI. They are about the optics of AI. The question isn’t whether AI belongs in the business. It does. The question is whether leaders can distinguish between work that should be automated and work that creates value because a human is doing it. The mistake hiding behind the AI narrative Here is what may actually be happening. A CEO walks into a boardroom just after a competitor announces major cost savings through AI. Pressure builds to deliver a similar headline. A consultant arrives with a presentation deck. A vendor demonstrates a promising new tool. And somewhere in that sequence, a decision gets made about headcount, often before anyone has properly mapped what those employees were actually doing. The rollout begins before the redesign. Headcount is reduced before organisations audit where value actually sits within a role. Then, when customer complaints rise, satisfaction scores dip, or service quality declines, businesses are left solving a problem they created themselves, often at a cost that offsets the original savings. This is not an AI problem. The technology is, in many cases, doing exactly what it was designed to do. This is a leadership problem: understanding the difference between deploying a tool and redesigning work around it. And right now, many organisations are still struggling to distinguish between the two. The contrast leaders should be talking about US compliance technology company Smarsh introduced an Agentforce-powered service assistant called Archie in 2025. Similar technology category. Similar customer-facing use case. Similar board-level pressure to modernise. But the outcome looked very different. Chief Customer Officer Rohit Khanna told CIO magazine that the AI assistant now handles a significant share of customer queries, knowledge-base creation and basic support. Then came the most important part: “We didn’t let people go.” Instead, employees were moved into higher-value work, handling more complex issues, escalations and relationship-led interactions where human judgment still matters most. AI absorbed repetitive tasks that were never the best use of human capability in the first place. Same technology. Different leadership framework. Very different result. The organisations navigating this transition well are not necessarily using more advanced AI. They are doing the foundational work first: mapping responsibilities before making workforce decisions, identifying what can be automated, what should be enhanced through AI, and what depends entirely on human capability, whether that is trust, creativity, judgment or empathy. The deeper challenge The dominant narrative today suggests AI is reshaping work. That may be true eventually. But right now, what is reshaping work is often the idea of AI, applied too quickly, without structure, and sometimes used to justify cost-cutting decisions that were always about cost. The technology ends up taking both the blame and the credit for what is, at its core, a familiar restructuring exercise with a new label. Companies treating AI primarily as a headcount strategy are likely to keep generating reversal headlines. Those treating it as a redesign opportunity will quietly build stronger operating models. And the gap between the two is likely to widen over the next 12 to 18 months, because the cost of getting this wrong is no longer theoretical. It is already visible in rehiring patterns, customer experience scores, and institutional knowledge walking out the door, often for good. The question is not whether AI belongs in business. It does. The real question is whether leadership teams can clearly distinguish between work that should be automated and work that creates value precisely because a human is doing it. If that distinction is unclear, then the AI strategy is not really a strategy. It is simply a press release waiting to be rewritten.

The grace period ends June 30. Employers who have not yet adjusted Emirati salaries face permit suspensions and loss of Emiratisation credit from July 1. | Written by Tripti Mehta The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MoHRE) announced an increase in the minimum wage for Emiratis employed in the private sector to AED 6,000 per month, effective January 1, 2026, with establishments that employed Emiratis before that date given until June 30, 2026 to adjust salaries to meet the new threshold. The new minimum wage applies to new citizen work permits as well as those being renewed or amended from January 1, 2026 onwards. For existing employees, June 30 is the hard deadline. The AED 6,000 figure represents the latest stage in a phased approach by MoHRE, which previously raised the minimum salary for Emiratis from AED 4,000 to AED 5,000, and now to AED 6,000. The gradual adjustment is designed to align wage levels with market benchmarks while giving private sector employers sufficient time to plan. What Happens on July 1 If a citizen's salary is not updated by June 30, 2026, two measures take effect from July 1: The citizen will not be counted in Emiratisation ratios until the salary is adjusted A restriction will be applied to the establishment, suspending new work permits for citizens with salaries below AED 6,000 Importantly, the salary threshold operates as a separate enforcement layer from headcount quotas. Even companies meeting their Emiratisation headcount targets will lose Emiratisation credit for any Emirati paid below AED 6,000, and the two penalty regimes compound rather than substitute for one another. What Employers Must Do Now MoHRE has called on establishments to amend employment contracts of Emirati employees to reflect the new minimum salary before June 30. Source: MoHRE; KPMG Flash Alert 2026-006; Middle East Briefing; UAE Government official portal