Raffles Institution

This school reimburses employees up to $1,500 for items promoting health or work-life balance

from: AARP, September 2011

In promoting employee bonding activities, the SWC organizes school-wide lunches in conjunction with festive occasions such as Chinese New Year, and Hari Raya cum Deepavali. At the macro level, the SWC budgeted $50 per employee for departments to organize lunch and bonding sessions on their own.

Other interest-driven activities, coordinated by SWC, included physical activities such as Pilates, yoga and kick-boxing. Employees are also given up to $1,500 on a reimbursement basis to spend on anything that would help them promote work-life balance and well-being.

Immediate family members are included in the company's Outpatient medical and hospital and surgical insurance policies.

Diversity Promotion: The institution appreciates diversity among people and values the distinct contribution of each individual. Raffles Institution fosters diversity through induction, handbook, mentoring, training and development ; communicates these values through displayed materials; and reinforces values through inter-department and intra-department review sessions, staff contact sessions, staff retreats and performance appraisal exercises. To encourage employees to embrace these values, the institution rewards and recognizes their efforts with performance bonuses and long service awards.

Finally, their promotion criteria are based on performance, potential and the years of service in the institution. Employee promotions are not influenced by age.

Recruitment: To compete against the Singapore Ministry of Education and other independent schools, they create HR policies to ensure that employees' needs are met and they remain happy, motivated and engaged in their work.

Furthermore, Raffles Institution promotes fair employment practices by hiring candidates based on their merits, specific skills, expertise, and the ability to perform the job's role. Words or phrases that suggest preference for job candidates will not be used in any advertisements. However, jobs that are physically demanding will be clearly identified.

The institution is age-neutral in hiring practices, and unbiased toward age, race, gender and religion.