New Website Launched To Promote Greater Awareness Of Gender Diversity And Inclusion In The Workforce

KUALA LUMPUR, 8 July 2013 – The Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development (MoWFCD) and Talent Corporation Malaysia Berhad (TalentCorp) today launched flexWorkLife.my to create greater awareness of gender diversity and inclusion in the workforce through a repository of best ideas and practices on flexible work arrangements and family-friendly facilities.

The launch was officiated by YB Datuk Hajah Rohani Haji Abdul Karim, Minister of Women, Family and Community Development and YB Senator Dato’ Sri Idris Jala, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department at a conference organised by MoWFCD and TalentCorp themed ‘Optimising Work-Life’.

“In line with the Government’s aspirations, the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development has taken steps to promote the participation of women in the labour market by making more career options available to them to suit their family and lifestyle needs,” said Datuk Hajah Rohani.

“Despite numerous studies proving the positive effects of a diverse workforce on an organisation’s bottom line, not enough of Corporate Malaysia view diversity and inclusion as a business imperative. Given Malaysia’s ambitious transformation agenda, tapping on our women talent is critical if companies want to enlarge and enrich their talent pool in an era of scarce resources,” said Dato’Sri Idris who also sits on TalentCorp’s Board of Trustees.

Cognisant of the challenge that employees face in having to juggle personal and professional commitments, flexWorkLife.my aims to build a network of employers and talents to optimise work-life integration, while maximising work efficiency and enhancing employee engagement. Employers can find on FlexWorkLife.my a combination of best practices, case studies and success stories on work-life integration. In addition, employers can post job opportunities with flexible work arrangements.

Effective today, employers can also apply online for tax incentive on training expenses incurred to retrain women who have returned to work after a career break. The tax incentive is designed to encourage employers to provide relevant trainings for women who are being re-employed after their career break, with the aim to assist them to assimilate into their new role.

The new portal was developed by MoWFCD and TalentCorp in partnership with myStarjob.com, and is targeted for jobseekers looking for careers offering flexible working arrangements as well as those wanting greater work-life balance to manage their personal and professional commitments.

According to the Retaining Women in the Workforce Report published by ACCA and TalentCorp early this year, Malaysian women visibly desire flexible work arrangements that accommodate family commitments, support for maternal needs, optimum work-life balance, and equal opportunities and rewards. However, only 30 per cent of the survey respondents’ employers have flexible work arrangements policy.

In view of this, the conference also featured the country’s first job fair, flexFair, which highlight career opportunities with employers that have flexible work arrangements and offer work-life practices and benefits. More than 15 leading organisations participated at the flexFair including Accenture, AirAsia X, Dell, EY, Hewlett Packard, Intel, McDonald’s, PwC, Securities Commission Malaysia and Telekom Malaysia.

Additionally, the conference highlighted issues related to diversity management and boardroom diversity. Speaking in a panel session on Diversity as a Driver for Talent Retention, speakers such as Stuart Dean (CEO ASEAN, GE Global Growth & Operations) and Jenny Ooi (Senior HR Director, Agilent Technologies) shared their experience in implementing flexible work arrangements and work-life practices in their efforts to retain their talent.

Nora Abd Manaf (Senior Executive VP, Head, Group Human Capital of Maybank Group) spoke on advocating diversity by taking steps to improve the gender diversity ratio for mid and senior management and disclosing their overall gender ratio in their annual report. Meanwhile, panellists Datin Teh Ija Jalil (Executive Director, Securities Commission Malaysia) and Tengku Nurul Azian Tengku Shahriman (Director, PEMANDU) evaluated Malaysia’s progress in meeting its target of at least 30 per cent of women representation in the boardroom in the panel session on Diversity in the Boardroom.

For further information on flexWorkLife.my, please visit www.flexworklife.my.