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Standing Together as One POPULAR Heartbeat 长期服务奖: 众心齐动，共同迈进! With the Long Service Awards, Popular Singapore celebrated the commitment and achievements of their staff. 新加坡大众以长期服务奖表彰同仁的全情投入与成就。 Workplace restrictions on gatherings meant that Popular Singapore was not able to hold a physical Long Service Award (LSA) ceremony in 2021. Therefore, we set out to provide an alternative arrangement to provide a memorable experience for all LSA recipients. Reviewing the Significance of POPULAR’s Appreciation The LSA is an important annual event in POPULAR that recognises the contributions of our staff. Hence, a recent review in the regional headquarters of Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong was done to determine if the current cash award was adequate in reflecting the commitment of POPULAR’s long serving staff. The review also looked for meaningful and valuable alternative gifts that would be treasured by our staff for years to come. Gold tokens were proposed and were eventually adopted as alternatives because gold represented the value and significance that we were looking for. We decided to present different gold tokens for different length of service, with an individualised Chinese Zodiac or Lady Liberty gold pendant for the 5-year LSA and a gold chain for the 10-year LSA. These could be worn as a necklace when combined! Recipients of the 15-year LSA and above were given a gold pendant with an embossed POPULAR logo. The gold awards differed in weight, with the longer service lengths corresponding to heavier gold pendants to reflect the increasing weight of the staff’s contributions! The revamp of the award did not stop at the tokens as we also reviewed the presentation to enhance the entire LSA experience for our recipients. We commissioned a specially designed holder for the LSA certificate and included a personalised message in each of the gift boxes. A photo montage on the intranet of the recipient’s milestones at POPULAR was also made to celebrate their achievements with the rest of the POPULAR family. The lack of a physical presentation ceremony meant that the LSA recipients were presented with their awards by their Head of Department in person. To Popular Singapore, this simple gesture was our way of expressing our appreciation with a human touch. Celebrating the Achievements of POPULAR’s Staff The 92 recipients of Popular Singapore’s LSA in 2021 included 41 recipients for the 5-year LSA, 21 recipients for the 10-year LSA, and 10 recipients for the 15-year LSA. There were also 13 recipients for the 20-year LSA, By Katherine Tan (Singapore) 文:陈珏均(新加坡) 138 popularnews - 23