The best companies in Singapore grew their revenue by as much as 21% despite a sluggish economic year.
Great Place to Work® Institute, Singapore, a global research, consulting and training firm, announced the 2016 Singapore Best Companies to Work For. The list recognises the Best 10 firms in Singapore with great workplace culture, along with three Watch Out World (W.O.W!) awards that is given to organisations deserving of being recognised for their progressive workplace culture.
A great workplace culture directly impacts a company’s bottom-line. Against the backdrop of a challenging economic landscape, these best 10 companies managed to not only perform consistently, but also grew their revenue by as much as 21%. Year-on-year, the best companies also enjoyed a decrease in staff turnover by as much as 45%.
The Best Companies invest in their people and their community regardless of the economic environment. This year’s best workplaces spent as much as 131 hours per year per employee developing them – that’s over half a month of training on one employee. 84% employees from these companies also report that they are more future-ready, as they are equipped with the relevant skills and knowledge to stay relevant in the workforce for the next five years, 11% more than the rest of the companies.
A new benchmark is set in this second year that the list is published in Singapore, with the average high-trust culture measure increasing two points from 82% to 84%. In this year’s study, the Institute found that the differentiating factor lies in how leaders in the Best 10 humanise their workplaces.
Other than being competent in leading the organisation, leaders from the best companies treat employees as individuals, not as economic commodities. Regardless of role or position, these leaders put people at the heart of conversations, giving all employees opportunities to be recognised.
Further, the Best Companies excelled in three distinct practices: They inspire by instilling a sense of purpose across the organisation; they promote a climate of frequent and sincere thanking and appreciation; and engage all employees in their efforts to share and give back to the community.
“As Singapore continues to embrace the rise of digital and disruptive technologies, it is important to keep a focus on our people, to derive the best out of the driving force of the nation. Given the amount of time we spend in the workplace, it is the best avenue to create awareness and reinforce the behaviours of kindness, fairness, collaboration, camaraderie and respect for individuals” commented Evelyn Kwek, Managing Director, Great Place to Work® Institute Singapore.
This year’s study represents the voices of over 11,000 employees. The methodology to identify Singapore’s Best Companies to Work For and the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® is the same.
Two-thirds of a company’s scores are based on the results of The Trust Index© Employee Survey. This survey asks questions related to employees’ attitude about management’s credibility, overall job satisfaction and camaraderie. The other third is based on the responses to the Culture Audit©, which includes detailed questions about pay and benefit programs, and a series of open-ended questions about hiring practices, methods of internal communication, training, recognition programs and diversity efforts.
Great Place to Work® Institute also announced that it will launch Great Place to Work® Certified validation in Singapore for companies in 2017. Through the studies conducted over the last two years, the Institute found that there were organizations, who have great and progressive workplace cultures. While they may not be the best companies yet, their progressive workplaces deserve to be recognised and celebrated.
The validation is in line with the company’s mission to transform Singapore’s workplaces by engaging with more organisations in discussions about the importance of building strong workplace cultures. In the new certification, companies who have positive ratings from at least 70% of employees on the Great Place Trust Index© will be certified.
The 2016 Singapore Best Companies to Work For list:
Rank Company
The 2016 Watch Out World! Awards were given to organisations deserving of being recognised for their progressive workplace culture.
Mr Lim Swee Say, Minister for Manpower in his speech at the award ceremony said, “Our economy is in transition. Technology is disrupting the traditional ways of doing business. As a result, companies need to be innovative to succeed in the future economy. At the same time, our workforce is also in transition due to the ageing of our population. Our local workforce growth is slowing down quite rapidly. In fact, we will reach stagnation ten years from now. Our businesses have no choice but to become more manpower-lean so that in the future, the growth and businesses will not be constrained by the limited growth and manpower.”
He further added, “Being “manpower-lean” doesn’t imply that companies can be “manpower-mean”. In fact, the opposite is true. Be lean but don’t be mean. For companies to succeed, in fact, they need to pay even more attention to develop, nurture and engage their employees. They need to move away from viewing employees as mere “human resources”. The problem of human resources, or rather most resources, is that resources normally depreciate overtime. Companies should embrace employees not as “human resources” but as “human capital” and invest in them.”
