A new report on the best places to work in Asia and the Middle East sheds light on the values and practices that make organisations most attractive to employees.
Asia’s Best Multinational Workplaces list has been released for 2017. Produced by the Great Places to Work Institute, companies must operate in at least three countries in the region to be eligible to be included in the annual roundup of the best places to work.
So, who came out on top?
Ranked first is transportation services company DHL, followed by information technology organisation, Salesforce and luxury hotel group, Hilton.
The following companies filled the remaining ranks
- Omnicom Media Group (4th)
- Intercontinental Hotels Group (5th)
- SAP (6th)
- American Express (7th)
- Estée Lauder (8th)
- NetApp (9th)
- Dell EMC (10th)
Of the 25 best large workplaces in Asia, information technology and software company Atlassian ranked 4th and Australian make-up retailer, MECCA came in at 8th.
The research on the best places to work in Asia surveyed team members at companies across nine countries: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, India, Sri Lanka, Japan, South Korea, China, Singapore and Australia. To be considered, companies were first required to be accepted on at least one national best workplaces list. And for the best multinational workplaces in Asia list, companies that operate in three or more countries must be featured in at least two national best workplaces lists.
What were the top companies for workplace culture in 2016. Read the list here.
Metrics for success
Employees at the top 60 best places to work in Asia prioritised several factors as reasons their workplace was attractive – the most significant being trust.
Global engagement levels among employees sit at around 13 per cent. Organisations whose employees felt the highest level of trust in their company (including supportive initiatives such as providing the tools to allow them to best do their job, and a culture that encourages recognition and collaboration) said they felt energised and connected to their company’s purpose.
The report also found that in comparison to organisations with low or average levels of engagement, those ranked highly in the best organisations’ list of best places to work, had fewer employees, higher average revenue – and higher average productivity per person.
Want to know how to create a culture of trust at your organisation? Read our breakdown of Netflix’ revolutionary HR policy.
Other Insights
The report also puts several talked-about trends in the region in sharp relief.
For one, it notes Australia is facing a growing skills shortage in the labour market as the economy shifts to a service-dominated one. In fact, the services industry accounts for 60.4 per cent of GDP and employs about 70 per cent of the labour market.
Traditional skills in primary industries such as agriculture and manufacturing are not transferrable, and the report concludes that government initiatives in re-skilling of labour have not been meeting expectations at a satisfactory rate.
The report also shows the gender balance across major, economically powerful nations in the region.
Australia pulls in second in terms of gender parity at the management and executive level.
Perhaps surprisingly, in China there is an almost even balance of gender at the management level (54 per cent of women hold the position of team leader/manager compared with 46 per cent of men). And women trump men at the senior management/executive level; women hold 59 per cent of these positions compared to 41 per cent held by men.
In Australia, there is a comparable balance of men and women in the workforce to China (both sit at 50/50 gender balance), however women represent 17 per cent of management roles (compared with 83 per cent for men). And 20 per cent of senior management roles are held by women.
However this exceeds the percentage of senior management roles held by women in Singapore (19 per cent), Japan (10 per cent), South Korea (seven per cent), India (12 per cent) and Saudi Arabia (two per cent).
You can read the Best Workplaces in Asia 2017 report here.
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