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The COVID-19 pandemic looms over the world and has caused significant challenges to business operations. At times when the pandemic is the most severe, it is imperative to establish a systematic epidemic prevention and management process and maintain uninterrupted operations, while looking after the safety of our employees and customers. Yuanta Financial Holdings is the first financial institution in Taiwan to adopt the “ISO 45005 Guidelines for Safe Working during COVID-19 Pandemic” (hereafter referred to as ISO epidemic prevention guidelines) and pass the verification by British Standards Institution (BSI), leading the financial industry in actions taken towards epidemic prevention and continuing to meet global standards to provide customers and employees a safe, friendly, healthy and secure environment.  

The ISO epidemic prevention guidelines are general guidance for responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Even before the work guidelines were implemented, Yuanta was already making advance preparation by establishing an epidemic prevention response team at the group level to develop precautionary measures, reporting procedures, and operational manpower planning during the pandemic to ensure uninterrupted operations. For precautionary measures, the group requires employees to wear masks at all times and sets the social distance requirement of 1.8 meters which is greater than the government guidelines for epidemic prevention. After the outbreak of the pandemic in Taiwan, Yuanta Securities took immediate actions to temporarily close business areas for the safety of its customers and employees. In terms of epidemic protection supplies, for business offices located at COVID hotspots, Yuanta Bank was the first bank in Taiwan to distribute protective clothing and face shields to customer-facing staff. Besides preparing three months of emergency epidemic prevention supplies, which included masks, sanitizing alcohol and COVID-19 rapid home testing kits, to provide employees with the best back office support, in order to boost the morale of frontline staff, Yuanta provided an epidemic prevention allowance of NTD 10,000 to encourage the frontline employees who remained on their posts to serve our customers.

In the event of confirmed cases of COVID infections, Yuanta has also established in place a standard reporting procedures. Through immediate reporting and government contingency measures, Yuanta assisted in rapid isolation screening, infection survey for different levels, and disinfection of operating sites, and initiated the business contingency plan to continue to care and provide the necessary assistance for high-risk employees. Yuanta Financial Holdings has implemented COVID-19 risk control and epidemic prevention measures across the group through systematic epidemic prevention planning and has also paid attention to the physical and mental health of employees during the epidemic. Through employee assistance programs, online quit smoking course, online physical fitness course, Yuanta seeks to improve the immunity of employee’s mental and physical health. As a result of its efforts in workplace health and safety, Yuanta Bank, a subsidiary of Yuanta Financial Holdings, received the “National Healthy Workplace Award” from Taiwan’s Ministry of Health and Welfare, and all 149 bank branches nationwide were certified by the Health Promotion Administration with the “Healthy Workplace Badge”.

Yuanta Financial Holdings adopted ISO 45001 occupational safety and health management system in 2019, and its five main subsidiaries all passed third party certification by BSI in 2021, laying a solid foundation for Yuanta’s workplace safety standards. Under the framework of the ISO 45001 occupational safety and health management system, the ISO epidemic prevention guidelines provide related guidance for companies during the pandemic and require companies to conduct COVID risk planning and assessment and make plans for confirm infection reporting and care program for the wellbeing of employee mental health.  In the face of the epidemic, Yuanta has established epidemic prevention measures with proactive actions and comprehensive planning and makes flexible adjustments as the COVID situation changes to give our colleagues and customers the safest protection.