Abdul Rahim is the Director of Human Resources at the Conrad Centennial Singapore where he joined the hotel in February 2018.
What started out initially as a part-time job during school holidays turned into a passion. Rahim discovered his passion for hospitality and built his career in this exciting industry. Upon completing his national service in the Police Force, Rahim joined a five star hotel working at the Front Office. He then took up a part-time Hotel Management program to support his ambition and rose to the rank of Front Office Manager. In 2004, Rahim decided to expand his horizons and sought for opportunities beyond Singapore and took up a Front Office Manager role in a 5-star resort in Maldives. It was during this time, Rahim expressed interest in Human Resources. Never resting on his laurel, Rahim took to the challenge and became the Director of Human Resources and subsequently moved as the opening team for a five star resort in Seychelles.
While being busy pursuing his career ambitions, Rahim also cared for his beautiful family of a son and two daughters, with a highly supportive and loving wife. Now back in Singapore, Rahim loves doing what he does best, developing people, talent and their careers.
Gender equality gaps remain large in many countries in the APAC region. How do you see the gender diversity in APAC?
In most countries in APAC, perceived traditional gender division and norms still persist. There is still a strong cultural belief that men are the bread winner of the family and women are typically home makers.
Moreover, there is a tendency for women to make career sacrifices post marriage and with the arrival of their own children. Society also has unconscious bias with stereotyping of jobs on the basis of gender.
Nevertheless over the years the perceived gender division gap is narrowing and this is a positive change.
McKinsey research clearly shows that companies that are more diverse are more productive, more efficient and give better returns to shareholders. What measures are you taking to ensure this and are you leveraging the benefits already?
Interestingly, we have a near to equal male (50.4%) to female (49.6%) ratio at Conrad Centennial Singapore. Furthermore 59 percent of the managers at the hotel are females. Her at Conrad, we pride ourselves in recruiting on the basis of meritocracy. We truly believe in recruiting the most suitable person for the role regardless of gender, social, ethnic and religious background.
In all our job advertisements, we will never state any gender preferences. We also celebrate and share success whenever we bridged any gender differences. At the hotel, we support Women’s Week and organise talks and workshops for single mothers, providing them with tool to pursue a balanced family and career path.
It’s widely acknowledged that organizations pursue diversity and inclusion not just for ethical reasons, but also to realize enhanced business results and better financial performance. What's your take on the business case of diversity and inclusion?
Diversity and inclusion makes sense for any business. Organisations need to understand the different working behaviour and how these can complement one another. Women are naturally nurturing and supportive, qualities which are essential in the service industry.
Conrad Centennial Singapore holds inclusion close to our heart, as we work closely with Delta Senior School to provide training and job opportunities to individuals with special needs individuals. The workforce of the hotel also consist of 15% of individuals aged 54 years old and above, valuing the experience that these senior staff brings to the organisation.
While it’s the responsibility of D&I managers to ensure diversity and inclusivity, how can boards ingrain inclusion into their organizational strategy?
Boards need to be aware of any unconscious biasness occurring and take necessary steps to reduce or eliminate it during decision making processes. It is also imperative that the board itself is diverse and set targets and goals with measurable KPIs to achieve diversity.
Do you think it’s time to have a diversity, equity, and inclusion dashboards which shows the retention rate for women, the number of women in leadership positions, employee engagement numbers, and inclusion sentiment, what is the percentage of employees who report feeling welcome and included?
Our society needs to work towards to the aim of making inclusion a natural behaviour that needs no measurement or reminder. Meanwhile as we progress towards this stage the dashboards serves are goals and reminders for us.
At the Hilton Group, we take inclusion sentiments seriously, and ensure our team members feel welcome and included. Every year, the company conducts a global survey amongst all team members (GTMS – Global Team Member Survey) to gauge on this matter.
Conrad Centennial Singapore’s GTMS results shows that 82% of the team members of the hotel strongly feels that we have the correct working environment that enables them to perform at their best. 81% of the team members at our hotel would strongly recommend the hotel as a place to work in.
D&I has never been that critical it is today. However, it continue to be frustrating and challenging for companies. Why is this gap? Why are we failing?
Unfortunately, unconscious bias is still prevalent and it is hard to get 100% acceptance due to strong engrained cultural beliefs. We are in a transitional stage and it is positively reassuring to see that the younger work force are celebrating diversity and are vocal about it.
What is the most overlooked inclusion issue in any organization? What are some challenges in creating a culture of inclusion?
I believe physical structures of buildings, especially in older buildings, are not designed to be wheelchair-friendly. Due to such restrictions, it may limit the possibility of employing people with physical disabilities.
Understand that in Singapore, Singaporean male employees have to fulfil their NS commitments beyond the 2 years of mandatory National Service. Why is Conrad Centennial Singapore a firm supporter of National Service when other organizations may hire employees without such commitments?
Here at Conrad Centennial Singapore, we practise an all-inclusive hiring culture. We see value in employing Nsmen as they have picked up communications skills and leadership qualities during their NS stint that will benefit our organisation.
National Service and Total Defence form the cornerstone of Singapore's continued stability and prosperity, which is essential for businesses to prosper. So rather than seeing NS commitments as a liability, we believe that businesses operating in Singapore require these NSmen to keep the country and economy stable.
We are honoured to be recognized with the NS Mark (Gold) accreditation and receive the NS Advocate Award for Large Companies at the 2019 Total Defence Awards.
What are some of the support schemes in place for NSmen working in Conrad Centennial Singapore?
Conrad Centennial Singapore ensures our NSmen employees have sufficient rest and are assigned one day off before the start of their ICT whenever operationally possible. We also encourage employees to volunteer with MINDEF/SAF and MHA; in fact we have employees who volunteer with SPF’s Volunteer Special Constabulary (VSC).
For NSmen who are taking the Individual Physical Proficiency Test (IPPT), Conrad allows them to use the hotel's gym during off peak hours for their training. During one of our quarterly internal activities, named Inspiration Get-Together with food and drinks, they invite NSmen to wear their NS uniform to take the pledge and get recognized for the contribution to the nation.