In today’s rapidly developing society, the concepts of sustainability and human capital are interconnected. Sustainability encompasses the long-term viability of our society while human rights emphasise the equality of individuals. Apart from this, human capital refers to the skills, knowledge and well-being of people, which are essential for a sustainable development. Therefore, the Group fosters an inclusive and diverse work environment which is essential for building an inclusive and resilient organisation.

Employment best practices

Each individual deserves to be treated with respect, fairness and equality in the workplace regardless of their role or location. Our approach is guided by the relevant laws in Malaysia, such as the below: 

• Employment Act 1955 (Act 265)
• Industrial Relations Act 1967
• Holidays Act 1951 (Act 369)
• Children and Young Persons (Employment) Act 1966 (Act 350)
• Employment (Termination and Lay-Off Benefits) Regulations 1980

To foster a healthy and sustainable workforce that values human capital, we continue to preserve our best practices and uphold the Group’s core values as below:

The Group commits to the principles as stated in our statement in relation to labour standards, which was first introduced in FY 2023. The said statement was available in English and Malay language and was communicated to our employees. The following principles reflect our values:

• Positive work conditions for our employees where discrimination and harassment are not condoned.
• Prohibition of child labour in our operations, where no employees are under the minimum age for employment set by the relevant laws and regulations in Malaysia.
• Denouncement of forced labour, i.e. where workers are compelled to work against their will and where they are unable to leave due to threats or penalty by their employer.
• Fair and competitive remuneration packages for employees based on their qualifications, skill sets, performance, seniority and experience.
  

The Group also engages with its employees to obtain valuable insights on what matters the most to them and to understand specific sustainability or employment issues through multiple sources and touchpoints, such as targeted engagement through focused groups and one-on-one interviews. Townhalls, department meetings, feedback platforms and employees’ events are also some of the approaches taken.

Apart from this, any concerns or violations to the above can be reported directly to the Group’s Chairman of the Board Audit and Risk Management Committee through the whistleblowing platform that is stated in our Whistleblowing Policy, which is widely available in our company’s website.

For FY 2023, there were no cases of discrimination, harassment or violations of child labour or forced labour being reported or recorded.

General Workforce Statistics

Workforce diversity has emerged as a key driver of success in today’s globalised and interconnected world. The Group continues to focus on employee diversity in order to bring unique perspectives, experiences and talents to the table.  

Promoting ethnic diversity requires ongoing efforts and initiatives to eliminate biases and provide equal opportunities to foster a culture of inclusivity. The Group will continue to embrace the diversity of our employees.

The Group actively invests and gives the younger generation a chance to contribute to the success of our longterm growth. Generally, the Group’s mix of employees at different age groups had remained fairly constant and healthy over the years.

In terms of gender balance, we continuously strive to achieve a balance of genders at departmental and group levels. Although there are more male employees due to the nature of our business, we continue to make an effort to identify more female candidates, especially for technical positions, where female applicants tend to be fewer.

Employee retention is crucial for maintaining a stable and productive workforce. Across the Group in FY 2023, we have a full time staff turnover rate of 9.6% with permanent and contractors/temporary staff ratio of 76.7% : 23.3%. Among these, we do not have any staff with a disability. We will continue to build a supportive and engaging work environment to retain talents.

Learning and Development

The Group recognises that systematic and continued training and development of employees is essential to ensure continued efficiency, effectiveness and growth of the company. Thus, our training policy aligns training and development programs with the larger organisational goals while giving due consideration to the development needs of the employees. 

The Group also conducts development analysis to understand the development needs of the employees. This allows the identification of knowledge and skill gaps within the organisation against external factors, such as industry and regulatory changes, employee expectations and the latest innovation and technological advancements.

Below is part of the personal development trainings attended by the employees in FY 2023 to enhance their abilities or individual skills:

• Cyber security briefing
• Goal setting
• Reviewing a contract
• Mastering the presentation skills
• Statistical analysis tools
• Root cause analysis and reasoning tool
  

In FY 2023, the Group recorded a total of 12,647 training hours with an average of 9.3 hours per employee. We will continue to focus on people development as a continuous effort to raise the employees’ service and skill levels to ensure a steady supply of talent for now and the future.

The Group’s community engagement aims to encourage the participation in community works and to cultivate a sense of responsibility among our employees toward the local communities. To this end, SSB’s Heart-to-Heart (“H2H”) club has been established since year 1995 as a vehicle and to operate with the following guidelines:

• Carrying out community works in locations where SSB has operations.
• Community works with non-profit based organisations.
• Encourage participations to instil the spirit of volunteerism of helping the less fortunate, both within and outside of the Group. 

The activities carried out during the financial year were as follows:

Blood donation campaigns

SSB held blood donation campaigns bi-annually to raise the awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products together with the government hospitals.

As a token of appreciation, refreshments were prepared and each participant was given a door gift and participation in lucky draw.

Charity visits in conjunction with major festivals

In FY 2023, SSB had contributed a total of RM14,445 in social activities, which includes donation in terms of cash and necessities. In addition, a total of 268 employees from the Group were involved and they had clocked in approximately 2,136 hours participating in the social activities. To encourage recycling, the funding of H2H mainly came from selling old newspapers and magazines.