DBS and Woh Hup (Private) Limited have emerged as Singapore’s Kincentric Best Employers in 2021, according to Kincentric’s premium assessment that identifies organisations who demonstrate outstanding people practices and workplace excellence.
While DBS has been named Kincentric Best Employer for the sixth time in Singapore and across the Asia Pacific, home-grown construction firm, Woh Hup (Private) Limited has been recognised for the first time. These two companies are particularly leading the way by creating engaging environments fostering organization’s agility and building engaging leaders.
Companies were evaluated against four research-based elements that are key to accelerating success: Employee Engagement, Organisational Agility, Talent Focus and Engaging Leadership. Kincentric identifies Best Employers that are in the Top Quartile and research shows that excelling across these four areas leads to better business results. Across each of the four parameters, the difference between the Top Quartile and their peers was at least 10 percentage points or more.
Engaging Leadership, Agility & Talent Focus Trump
Engaging Leadership, Organisation Agility and Talent Focus feature as the key factors that have enabled Singapore’s Best Employers to do exceptionally well. According to Kincentric’s insights, these companies are 10%* stronger on Engaging Leadership scores, 12%* better on Organisational Agility and 11%* committed on Talent Focus. This clearly demonstrates decisive and agile people-centric business decisions that organisations have had to take through the pandemic.
Andrew How, Market Leader, Kincentric Singapore, said “The last two years have been like no other and this pandemic has significantly changed the nature of work. Kincentric Best Employers distinguish themselves based on how well they rise to these challenges and provide a first-class employee experience to their people along the way. The strength of their people practices is what positions Kincentric Best Employers to be able to meet the ever-changing nature of work and evolving employees’ aspirations.”
Special Recognition for DE&I
For the first time, Kincentric introduced a Special Recognition Award for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion best practices. DBS, Atkins Design Engineering Consultants Pte Ltd (a member of the SNC-Lavalin Group) and MSD International GmbH (Singapore Branch) in Singapore have been recognised in this category for their development of diverse, equitable and inclusive work cultures, creating a safe and inclusive space for employees of all backgrounds, experiences, expressions and perspectives.
Kincentric evaluated these organisations to have a robust and formal organisational approach to DE&I that had a strong alignment between Employees, Managers and Leaders. They also have exceptional and strong DE&I practices that enable them to display Best Employers’ characteristics such as Employee Engagement, Organizational Agility, Talent Focus and Engaging Leadership.
Special Recognition for Social Service Sector
The Social Service Sector plays a critical role to promote the well-being of people, where nobody gets left behind. To highlight the best people-centric organisations in this sector, the Kincentric Best Employers 2021 assessment has provided Special Recognition to the selected Social Service Agencies.
AMP Singapore, Halogen Foundation (Singapore), Lutheran Community Care Services Ltd and TOUCH Community Services Ltd, are the Agencies recognised for the Special Recognition in the Social Service Sector in 2021. This was assessed based on a methodology to understand how well these organisations engaged their employees and how exhibited the Best Employers’ attributes. The key requisite for assessment was that the Employee Engagement score had to be on par or higher than the Top Quartile score of Singapore.
Trends from 2021 assessment
- The current pandemic has accelerated the megatrends of digitalisation and shifted fundamentally how organisations work. The Kincentric Singapore Best Employers 2021 assessment highlights that Top Quartile companies tend to be better in Change Management (12%*) and Senior Leadership have a much higher standing (17%*).
- In addressing more complex business issues arising from greater levels of ambiguity and uncertainty, Top Quartile companies put in place interventions to establish a better brand in the community (14%*), practical learning programs (13%*), create psychological safety for their employees (13%*), provide better work flexibility (12%*) and managers also seem to develop a positive team atmosphere (11%*). This enables organisations to build resilience, enhance capabilities and tap on the collective wisdom of the team to redefine how business is run to achieve better results.
- Kincentric has also found that Top Quartile companies do better in engaging the younger generations, notably the Geriatric Millennials (Age 35 to 44) (14%*), Gen Z (12%*).
Kincentric’s global research has shown that given the present challenges around talent retention, employees who do not see good career opportunities and the organization’s response to their well-being are four times more likely to leave.
Congratulating this year’s Kincentric Best Employers, Mr Andrew How said, “These are challenging times. Leading organisations have demonstrated agility to respond effectively to disruptions while being connected to the needs of their employees. Look around your organisation today and you’ll observe ways of working that are quite different to only a few years ago. This ability to stay agile to meet the demands of external customers and internal staff is a defining characteristic of Kincentric Best Employers.”