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First Year Anniversary of WLI Singapore Champions of Change Pledge Launch
11 January 2023
The Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) chapter in Singapore launched the Champions of Change Pledge a year ago on 11 January 2022. The Champions of Change Pledge is a major milestone in us bringing together stakeholders in the real estate industry to articulate how we will support and advocate gender diversity, which is necessary for advancing women as leaders in the real estate industry.
This Pledge aims to bring visibility to the people who are actively supporting diversity, equity and inclusion in the organisation they are in, be it as a role model, as a supporter for systematic improvements and/or by influencing the ecosystem. By signing on the Pledge, these Champions regardless of starting point, are open to sharing their efforts, continuous progress, and adopting new best practices towards diversity, equity and inclusion, which ULI believes to be the fundament for sustainable and thriving communities.
Over the past year, 38 individuals have signed on the pledge to be a Champion of Change in their personal capacity. Fourteen large and small firms have likewise taken on the Pledge to be Corporate Champions of Change.
WLI Singapore Champions of Change
Valerie Chua, one of ULI’s young women members who recently joined the real estate industry met with Seah Chee Huang, CEO of DP Architects and Adeline Ong, SVP, Head of Group Strategic Communications and Branding at Frasers Property Limited to directly find out more about the progress they have made since signing on the Pledge and their respective journeys.
Seah Chee Huang, CEO of DP Architects
As a young leader, do you face any challenges in trying to champion the change that you have pledged for?
I believe that when it comes to change, for most leaders championing it especially in an organisation, the big challenge is often “change management”. When a change does not occur immediately, some in the firm may get impatient or doubtful. But when a change happens too fast and drastic, it may lead to disruption anxiety which becomes counter-productive as employees will question the cause and vision the firm has set.
Championing change in the context of a large practice like DP, with numerous partners from three “generations”, it has its unique challenges but also strengths. For instance, when it comes to pushing for key changes such as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) aspects, there are often diverse points of views; and this underscores the importance of learning to navigate across and, more importantly, appreciate varying cultural perceptions. The diversity in thoughts do help to provide a more holistic review of the issues discussed, avoiding bias or blind spots. Ultimately, we rely on DP’s long-standing ethos that “Every DPian Matters”. Hence, when advocating change, we often conduct dialogues with DPians across designations and roles, to communicate the proposed initiatives and plans, to collate feedback for more informed and meaningful intervention.
Adeline Ong, SVP, Head of Group Strategic Communications and Branding, Frasers Property Limited
In this journey as a champion of change, are there any success stories of advocating for diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI) which you can share more about?
Last year, we committed to a more inclusive parental leave policy for all employees, while further advancing our commitment to the empowerment of women. Enhancing our parental leave policy helps us empower all employees and their families. It also lowers barriers preventing men from taking parental leave.
The extended paternity leave policy at Frasers Property in Singapore, enables all husbands or partners, regardless of their nationality, to receive the same benefits. All fathers have two weeks of paternity leave. We have achieved greater equity in leave policies by providing the same leave policy for same-sex couples and single parents.
Across the Group, we are supportive of extending gender-neutral, compassionate leave to support pregnancy loss. In Singapore, we provide three days of paid compassionate leave for female employees and male employees whose partners experience a miscarriage. This is above and beyond existing leave entitlements. For stillbirth in fuller term pregnancies, we provide the full 16-week maternity and two-week paternity leave. Miscarriage is not something that is often talked about and through this leave policy, we hope to support both women and men going through such losses. This change might not impact a lot of people, but it can be very meaningful for the individual who is going through those difficult times.
Read the full interviews here:
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In Conversation with Champion of Change Seah Chee Huang, DP Architects
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In Conversation with Champion of Change Adeline Ong, Frasers Property Limited
We thank our Champions of Change for being part of ULI’s mission to shape the future of the built environment for transformative impact in communities worldwide. To join our growing group of Champions, please find out more here.