UOB Vietnam and Intellect partner to support SMEs in building manpower resilience
Ho Chi Minh City, 13 January 2023 - UOB Vietnam today announced a partnership with Intellect, a mental wellness tech company.
The bank’s SME customers will get access to Intellect’s app which provides well-being support for their employees.
Intellect is Asia’s largest and fastest growing mental wellbeing platform
Manpower is a key concern for businesses. About 44 per cent of the region’s SMEs are looking at retaining and motivating their staff as a measure to manage labour costs, according to the ASEAN SME Transformation Study 20221 conducted by UOB and partners.
With the fast pace of business across the region, however, employees’ mental health has become a larger concern. Challenges faced by SMEs range from decreased employee morale and falling productivity to employee burn-out.
App to nurture employees’ well-being
Through the new partnership between UOB Vietnam and Intellect, UOB is continuing to develop resilience amongst SMEs - who form nearly 99 per cent of the region’s enterprises and contribute nearly half of ASEAN’s GDP - by supporting their employee workforce.
UOB Vietnam’s SME customers will get free access to Intellect’s app for three months - providing them with access to tools that nurture their employees’ well-being. This includes access to a 24/7 helpline, guided journals for daily reflections, and learning paths to help tackle everyday challenges such as stress caused from a busy work schedule.
The SMEs will also be offered an option to upgrade their access to further content such as well-being webinars and one-to-one coaching for their employees, at a discount.
Mr Fred Lim, Head of Retail Banking, UOB Vietnam, said, “Developing resilience for SMEs through Intellect’s suite of manpower management solutions is how we support their long-term growth ambitions across the region. With a stronger and healthier workforce, SMEs will in turn be able to drive optimal performance and strategic growth.”
Mr Theodoric Chew, Co-founder and CEO, Intellect, said, “We are delighted to be partnering UOB Vietnam on this collaboration. Through the Bank’s strong franchise across ASEAN, we aim to improve businesses’ access to affordable, quality mental wellness care across Southeast Asia.”
UOB Vietnam actively partners companies in other ways, having launched digital platforms and solutions such as UOB SME app and UOB BizSmart to address SMEs’ business financing and operational needs.
The UOB SME app helps customers view their cash flow through an interactive dashboard, as well as receive customised insights based on their industries
These are in line another finding from the ASEAN SME Transformation Study, where 79 per cent of Vietnamese SMEs expressed a stronger need for tripartite collaboration with their banks and governments to navigate the business conditions ahead.
1 The ASEAN SME Transformation Study 2022 was conducted by UOB, in collaboration with Accenture and Dun & Bradstreet. Titled “Be Resilient, Your Strategy for Busines Growth”, the study gauged business sentiment amongst 1,500 SMEs in five key ASEAN markets - Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. The study is conducted every two years and previous editions were published in 2020 and 2018.