Jing Ying is a marketer with over 10 years of experience. She is currently the Marketing Manager of Sleek, managing brand, comms and CSR for the tech startup. Sleek is a tech startup aimed at helping entrepreneurs set up their companies in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and the UK with a fully digital experience. They have three pillars: tech for good, sustainability promise, and community initiatives.
She first co-founded and built a social enterprise, Soule, with two friends when she was 16, leading the branding, marketing and sales. The company's mission is to provide youth products with a social cause to empower children in Singapore, China and in disaster-hit areas. A total of 4,627 school shoes, footwear and other suppliers were given to schools and disaster relief sites over the past years. Soule also did CSR consulting for companies in Singapore and China. She worked in a mix of non-profit and agency roles before moving to Sleek.
I joined Sleek as I was inspired by the co-founders’ story of wanting to make a difference in the lives of the entrepreneur community in Singapore, and being part of a fast-paced startup. I was also excited to build the CSR program for Sleek and multiply its social and environmental impact.
Do Better By Sleek is Sleek's CSR Programme.
Under the programme, there are 3 pillars: Tech for Good, our Sustainability promise and our Community initiatives.
Technology for good
Tech can be for good. We developed SleekSign: Asia’s only free, unlimited use, legally binding eSignature platform to help our clients save time, money and most importantly, help the environment. With SleekSign, say bye to printing (and reprinting) of documents, and hello to digitalization. As of today, through SleekSign, our clients have processed over 436,202 pages, which adds up to save 2.69 tons of paper from landfills. That’s a lot of paper.
Our sustainability promise
In 2020, we launched our carbon neutrality program, planting mangrove trees in East Java, Indonesia. Our goal is to become the first carbon neutral corporate services provider in Asia-Pacific by 2030, and for future operations to be carbon positive.
Our community initiatives
Today, we’re looking for more ways to do good and support our local community. During the pandemic, we began our partnership with Singapore charity, Rainbow Center. Through our long term partnership, we are committed to helping families of children with disabilities to uplift themselves through being equipped in financial literacy and learning to start their own home businesses.
Since the beginning of the project, we’ve planted 15,770 mangrove trees that are expected to absorb over 1,378 tons of carbon by 2030!
We also hope to scale up this impact by encouraging other companies to join us in being sustainable in business practices and more.
Skills-based volunteering: Our Sleek staff is imparting knowledge through skill-based volunteering initiatives with Rainbow Centre.
Partnerships with social enterprises: We also hope to offer our core services (company incorporation, accounting, company secretary) at discounted prices to aspiring entrepreneurs and social enterprises to empower them in our unique ways.
Knowledge sharing: Every month we hold lunch & learn sessions with individuals from the community, organization and charities to educate our Sleekers about social causes to be a more inclusive workforce.
I used to work at the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC), managing the Giving.sg marketing team. We managed everything from online to offline marketing and branding. It was a rewarding time, truly starting my journey on tech for good - and seeing how impact can be multiplied through the use of technology to help over 500 charities. We exceeded 150 million (SGD) in accumulated donations in 2019 and it was one of my proudest moments in the organization.
Most importantly, seeing the charities and meeting the individuals that the platform has helped to empower was one of my most important highlights during my time there.
Find your A team - we can’t do it alone. As the cliche saying goes, if you would like to go far, go together. You need to find people whose values align with yours, and whose work ethics and passion for excellence matches your own. Secondary factors like complementary skill sets are important too.
Attitude determines your altitude. Having a winning attitude would really set the course of your direction and grow your journey forward. Staying humble and open to learning is something I want to continue adopting in my personal life and I encourage you to have an open mind to new people and experiences too.
Practice self-care. At times when we want to change the world in big ways, we end up thinking this journey is a sprint but it is actually a marathon. We need to be aware of our own energy levels and if we are burning out. Hence, do be very aware of your own fuel tank and check in with yourself regularly. We want to burn on, not burn out, so we can continue making a difference.
I'm happy to explore ways on how businesses can make a difference alongside individuals, and how they can partner government agencies and charities together for greater impact. Or simply any other conversations on making a difference in the areas of social impact, education, children & youth, or sustainability (a new topic I'm learning about)!
Jing Ying kindly accepts to answer your questions.
If you need additional insights, you can send her a message or connect with her on LinkedIn.
Sustainable HR practices > Recruiting and Onboarding > Adopt a sustainable hiring and interview process
Sustainable HR practices > Operations > Automate HR processes, eliminate all papers