CIMB's working mothers to enjoy more flexibility

Najib taking a wefie with CIMB staff

KUALA LUMPUR: CIMB Group celebrated the International Women's Day by introducing a policy for its working mothers to work from home.

The policy, which was announced on behalf of the Group by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, allows female staffers with children under the age of five to work from home for one day in a week.

"CIMB, I believe is the best or among the best, in terms of looking after women in the organisation.

"I hope for other organisations to follow suit," Najib said at the CIMB Group headquarters here Thursday (March 8).

Also present was CIMB Group chairman Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazir Tun Razak, its chief executive officer Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Aziz and its chief people officer Datuk Hamidah Naziadin.

Najib also lauded the firm's good track record in ensuring gender balance.

"I believe that for a nation to prosper, there must be maximum female participation at every level of society," said Najib.

He added that currently, 34% of the top decision makers in the civil service are women, while the Group itself has 20% of women at the board level.

"The Government has already achieved the target of having 30% of women at the board level by 2020," said Najib.

Earlier, Zafrul said the work-from-home policy will benefit some 3,300 eligible female employees out of its 17,000 overall staff members in Malaysia.

"We want to focus on creating a gender balanced ecosystem," said Zafrul.

He added that the Group is on track towards realising the Government's agenda of having women make up at least 30% of the directors of public listed companies by 2020.

He said currently, in Malaysia, CIMB has 41% of women holding senior management positions.

Hamidah said the policy was drawn up due to requests from working mothers with small children.

"We also believe that this will increase productivity as we are giving mothers the flexibility to work from home," said Hamidah.