OCBC Hong Kong’s “Aspiration Leave” initiative empowers the public to pursue life goals

Summary

OCBC Hong Kong has launched the “Aspiration Leave” campaign to encourage employees, customers and the wider public to use their leave days to pursue personal goals. The initiative, promoted via the bank’s Instagram account, invited people to share their aspirations and has received over a thousand submissions, with selected stories featured on social media.

The bank partnered with local SMEs (including Admazes, Bergner (HK), HobbyDigi, Mak’s Noodle and U Park) to pilot the idea, encouraging staff across partner organisations to take Aspiration Leave and reflect on personal ambitions. Internally, OCBC rolled the scheme out to its circa 2,000 employees in Hong Kong and Macau, asking staff to share actionable plans on the intranet and rewarding selected entries.

OCBC CEO Wang Ke frames the campaign around the theme “Purpose is about lifting others”, linking aspiration and wellbeing to leadership development and a service-oriented culture. SME partner U Park’s director, Derek Leung, reported early positive conversations about morale, wellbeing and productivity as a result of the idea.

Key Points

OCBC Hong Kong launched “Aspiration Leave” to motivate people to use leave days for meaningful personal goals.
The campaign invited public and employee submissions via Instagram; more than 1,000 entries were received and some featured on social channels.
OCBC partnered with local SMEs (Admazes, Bergner (HK), HobbyDigi, Mak’s Noodle, U Park) to extend the initiative beyond the bank.
Internally the scheme covered about 2,000 OCBC employees in Hong Kong and Macau, with staff sharing plans on the intranet and receiving rewards for selected entries.
Leadership frames the initiative as part of building purpose-driven culture, empathy and wellbeing, aiming to boost morale, productivity and community impact.

Context and relevance

The move sits within a broader HR trend of employers using leave policy innovation to support wellbeing, retention and employer branding. By encouraging purposeful time off and partnering with SMEs, OCBC is positioning itself as a community-minded employer while testing a scalable idea that other organisations could adopt to improve engagement and work–life balance.

For HR professionals and SME leaders, the campaign is a practical case study in using a marketing-led brand campaign to influence workplace culture and to pilot wellbeing-focused policy changes with measurable employee engagement.

Why should I read this?

Quick and useful: this piece shows a simple, low-cost idea—encouraging people to use leave for life goals—being scaled across a bank and local SMEs. If you care about employee morale, engagement or creative wellbeing policies, it’s worth a skim. We’ve done the reading for you and pulled out the bits that matter.