Manulife’s work culture celebrates authenticity, diversity, respect, and boldness to stand strong. The organisation offers three flexible work setups—hybrid, in-office, and remote—to support both business demands and personal lives. This approach fosters work-life balance and builds a culture where employees feel empowered to make decisions and take action, embodying the company’s core values.

But how does Manulife sustain such a supportive and inclusive culture for over 40,000 employees worldwide? People Matters delved into this question during an exclusive conversation with David McDonald, Chief HR Officer at Manulife Asia.

David shared valuable insights into Manulife’s commitment to support, well-being, diversity, and inclusivity. He also discussed how the organisation uses key metrics to measure the impact of its initiatives on talent engagement and retention.

Read here the indepth interview:

How does DEI help Manulife build a high-performing team? Can you share examples of how diverse perspectives lead to innovation and how leadership supports DEI efforts?

Our global aspiration for DEI is to nurture a workplace that celebrates diversity and fosters inclusivity. We aim to create an environment where all colleagues are motivated to bring their whole authentic selves to work, which in turn allows them to flourish both personally and professionally. This empowers them to provide the best service to our customers, business partners, and communities. 

We firmly believe that our strength lies in embracing our differences, and that diversity is a key catalyst for innovation and growth without our organisation. These varied perspectives enable us to bring fresh thinking to our work, from developing new solutions for customers to better understanding the needs of our colleagues. 

One tangible example is our group medical coverage. One key differentiator for our benefit program is that it is available for domestic partners including same-sex partners. We believe access to medical coverage ensures employees and their families have financial protection against healthcare expenses, providing peace of mind and overall well-being. 

What drove Manulife's decision to offer benefits like fertility treatment, gender reassignment support, and extensive mental health coverage, and how have they impacted employee satisfaction?

We are consistently seeking ways to improve and remain competitive.  The introduction of benefits that support fertility and gender affirmation, along with comprehensive mental health support for our employees, was done in collaboration with our ESG and DEI Council leaders. With these initiatives we aim to go beyond traditional norms, which underscores Manulife's tangible commitment to diversity and inclusivity in the workplace.

We believe by ensuring competitive and often market-leading wellness and benefits programs, we can see improved employee morale, enhanced company culture, and a positive impact on employee retention and recruitment. In recognition of our workplace culture  Manulife was named as one of the World’s Best Employers by Forbes for the fourth consecutive year in a row.

Could you tell us more about Manulife’s holistic wellness initiatives and how they align with the broader goal of supporting employee health and work-life balance?

Benefits and wellbeing have always been pivotal in attracting and retaining talent, and are an important component of our total rewards.  That is why we go beyond traditional healthcare benefits and incorporate a global wellness strategy that promotes physical, mental, financial and social well-being. For example, in markets such as Singapore and Hong Kong, we have a Wellness account as part of our Flexible Benefits program that allows colleagues to spend on expenses related to fitness, sports and counselling services. We also offer an Employee Assistance Program, where colleagues and their families can confidentially consult on topics including but not limited to work-life balance, parenting, change and mental health. Our innovative MOVE program also extends to Manulife employees, providing step challenges and competitions that encourage colleagues to walk more and win prizes like fitness vouchers or annual leave.

Such benefits support the well-being of our people, which is critical to maintaining a high-performing team by ensuring our colleagues are able to perform at their best.

Manulife’s focus on universal design and flexible benefits is impressive. How do these strategies benefit employees from different backgrounds?

Our Flexible Benefits approach recognises the importance of empowering our colleagues by giving them agency through the ability to choose. Colleagues are allocated a certain amount of flexi credits based on the number of dependents they have enrolled. This enables them to select benefit options that best suit their life stage and personal needs. Options cover healthcare, our wellness account, vision and dental, helping to meet the individual needs of employees whatever their life stage, personal preferences or work-life balance.

How does Manulife ensure flexible work arrangements are fair and inclusive for employees at different life stages and with diverse needs? What challenges did you face in making workplace policies more inclusive?

It is important to remain proactive and forward-looking. With the aim of promoting a fair and equitable workplace, we devised and implemented a range of benefits and practices to enable equal opportunities for all individuals. To cater for the needs of different colleagues, we offer a variety of benefits or resources including volunteering leave, prayer room, nursing room, recreation sports clubs and employee resource groups (ERGs). 

Workplace flexibility is a global Manulife mandate with clear guidelines and training for managers. We offer a hybrid working model, where employees can decide to work from home up to two days a week. This helps employees’ personal needs and improve work-life balance, which then leads to increased productivity, job satisfaction, and reduced turnover.

In terms of challenge, one thing that may be surprising for people is that, in some organisations, there may be a tendency for people who need the benefit or flexible arrangements to not use them for fear of being seen as getting special treatment.  In overcoming this, we take it upon ourselves to create psychological safety, to ensure that people feel safe and know they will not be seen or treated differently when they decide to use these benefits – it helps them thrive!

What metrics does Manulife use to measure the impact of its benefits on employee retention and satisfaction? How is employee feedback incorporated into the benefits package?

At Manulife, we view employee benefits as a crucial competitive edge that is fundamental to our reputation as an employer of choice. We believe that enhancements to our wellness and benefits programs have been instrumental in our holistic approach encompassing employee communication, development, recognition, well-being, inclusion, and feedback.

We employ multiple approaches to measure our impact. Our rewards team keeps a close eye on market trends and regularly benchmarks against key competitors with the help of a third-party consultant. Internally, we would track colleague feedback through post-event surveys from our Wellness workshops, and through other means such as utilisation reports of our EAP program.

We also take into account feedback from our Check-in and Annual Gallup Employment Surveys to understand how our employees are faring. Additionally, Glassdoor provides us with further insights into what people are saying and feeling about their current and past experiences at Manulife.

Based on this, we are proud that we continue to have top quartile employee engagement despite a challenging business environment and the pandemic.  

Singapore has made strides in supporting same-sex benefits and fair employment practices. How has this influenced Manulife’s policies, especially regarding benefits for same-sex partners?

Our group medical plan exemplifies Manulife’s dedication to the health and well-being of our employees. Providing access to medical coverage guarantees that both our employees and their families are financially safeguarded against healthcare costs, fostering peace of mind and promoting overall wellness. That is why we are proud that our benefits program is truly inclusive, extending coverage to domestic partners, including same-sex partners.

Are there any current or upcoming initiatives that you’re working on to make Manulife Asia’s work culture more inclusive and supportive of thriving teams?

Our global culture and brand tagline, “Where will better take us,” reflects our continuous pursuit of improvement that guides our approach. We are continually examining how we can weave DEI considerations into every facet of our HR practices, from benefits to hiring and training, and look forward to introducing new approaches that can benefit our employees and help encourage the industry to see what is possible when it comes to truly inclusive benefits.