Thirteen companies are featured on the list of the yearly Great Place to Work Awards for Singapore. An awarding ceremony was held on Wednesday, November 7, with Singapore’s Minister for Manpower and Second Minister for Home Affairs, Josephine Teo, and Minister of State for both the Ministry of National Development and Ministry of Manpower, Zaqy Mohamad, as guests of honor.
For Medium and Large Workplaces, Salesforce, an American software company, topped the list for the fourth year running, and the Royal Plaza hotel on Scotts took second place, while another American tech company, Cisco, placed third. The top 3 companies this year are the same as in 2017, but with one difference. Last year Cisco placed second and Royal Plaza took third place.
Intuit Singapore, a financial software company, took first place in the Small Organizations category.
Here is the complete list of winners for 2018 Singapore Best Workplaces:
For Medium and Large Organizations:
1. Salesforce
2. Royal Plaza on Scotts
3. Cisco
4. Zendesk Singapore Pte Ltd
5. SAP Asia Pte Ltd
6. DHL Express (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.
7. Shalom International Movers Pte Ltd
8. Mastercard
9. FireEye
10. Adecco Personnel
For Small Organisations
1. Intuit Singapore Pte Ltd
2. Stryker Singapore Pte Ltd (ASEAN)
3. Hays Specialist Recruitment Pte Ltd Singapore
The Great Place to Work (GPTW) annual list recognizes firms with the best people and workplace culture practices. For 2018, GPTW, in partnership with Singapore Management University (SMU), launched a study across the Asia-Pacific region, involving 800 companies and over 400,000 workers.
One interesting finding from the study is that there is a strong connection between high marks in ‘psychological safety’ as well as a culture of good teamwork that leads to organizational, operational and business outcomes.
‘Psychological safety’ is defined by the GPTW based on the perceptions of a company’s workers concerning how emotionally and mentally healthy a workplace is, as well as the ability of leaders to acknowledge honest mistakes.
Professor of Strategic Management, and Deputy Dean for the Lee Kong Chian School of Business at SMU, Richard Smith, says,
“Studies have shown that a sense of psychological safety drives people to contribute more, take more risks and perform better as a team.”
It’s important to note that 92 percent of workers who believe their firms to be a great place to work also gave them high marks in psychological safety.
Also, the study shows that “behavioural integrity from leadership, organisational support, and healthy relationship networks” all contribute to creating a solid teamwork culture.
Minister Zaq praised the firms. He said, “These organisations create and sustain high-trust, high-performing workplace cultures. They show us that an inclusive, encouraging workplace is possible, regardless of company size and industry,” as reported by HrmAsia.
“Their efforts are especially laudable given the many challenges our modern workforce and businesses face today. Given the amount of time we spend at work, we should encourage more employers to foster workplaces that motivate employees to learn at work, through work, and for work.”
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