How top S’pore employers are winning the talent game – and why you should follow suit

ONE organisation introduces new employees to its culture and ethos through a week-long onboarding programme.

Another assigns buddies and career coaching groups to help employees chart their growth.

A third redesigns jobs for older staff and pairs them up with younger colleagues, allowing them to learn from one another.

These are just three of the 300 employers most committed to providing career and salary growth, as measured by a new index.

Introduced in October 2025 by the Ministry of Manpower, think-tank The Burning Glass Institute and the Singapore University of Social Sciences, the Singapore Opportunity Index (SOI) draws on data from close to one million workers across nearly 1,500 firms, to give employers and job-seekers a better view of career development, inclusiveness and competitiveness in Singapore’s labour market.

At the SOI launch and recognition event on Jan 21, 2026, Minister for Manpower Tan See Leng acknowledged that the nature of work is rapidly changing. “What we can do is build workers’ resilience, and adaptable careers over time,” he said.

To that end, the SOI offers qualitative and quantitative insights about employers’ wage, career progression, gender parity, retention and hiring policies, so workers can discover career opportunities. It also aims to inspire employers to improve their practices in attracting, developing and retaining talent.

Said Dr Tan: “In today’s competitive talent market, being on the SOI sends a strong signal: that your organisation delivers real opportunity and real growth.”

The index identifies three Models of Excellence – Career Launchers, Career Builders and Career Anchors (see box below) – showing the different ways in which organisations can shine.

At Rainbow Centre, a social service agency that supports persons with disabilities, staff go through a comprehensive in-house training programme.

For example, Special Education (SPED) educators typically begin as assistant teachers, gaining core teaching and assessment skills over two years. Eligible staff may be nominated for full-time studies to obtain formal SPED certification, with potential opportunities to progress into specialist tracks.

Says Valiant Chiang, Rainbow Centre’s senior assistant director, People and Culture: “We support career progression with structured salary and promotion frameworks, aligned to job scope and responsibilities. These are translated into pay increments and promotion opportunities, giving staff the confidence that their careers can grow in this sector.”

For its efforts, Rainbow Centre has been recognised as a Career Builder.

The social service agency has also benefited from its investment in its people. Attrition rates among its 800 or so staff have fallen over the years, which Chiang attributes to its structured onboarding, learning and development process, and its efforts to help employees imbibe its culture and ethos.

“It’s not just making sure that we have enough teachers and managers. We also want them to see that growth and advancement are possible.”

Rainbow Centre’s approach dovetails with several key SOI findings about model Career Builders – they do not just open doors and give employees a foothold in the labour market, but also create clear pathways for them to integrate and grow their careers.

For PwC Singapore, career-building is achieved through unique programmes involving buddies and coaching groups.

From the moment employees join the professional services firm, they are assigned buddies and placed into groups of 30 to 40 people from different levels and projects, led by coaching managers who guide them in their career development.

This allows them to learn from and tap the experience of mentors, seniors and peers as they work on their projects, attend training and plan their career moves.

“The coaching groups provide a way of building community and camaraderie,” says Johnathan Tay, human capital leader in PwC Singapore. “You’re stepping into an environment where there’s support from people who have been through the same journey.”

Recognised as both a Career Launcher and Career Builder, PwC Singapore has made coaching a key plank of its “Grow Here. Go Further.” strategy in developing employees. It complements the comprehensive training that staff undertake, including in-house learning and external professional qualifications. Altogether, PwC Singapore provides its 3,600-strong staff with some 250,000 training hours a year.

Employees also get to rotate across different parts of the company, with selected staff deployed to overseas offices under a Global Mobility programme. This initiative helps broaden their perspectives and gives them the experience of interacting with people from other cultures.

“We want to be a responsible employer, to offer staff the opportunity for growth in terms of pay and opportunities,” says Tay. “We would like them to maximise their potential.”

The results of PwC Singapore’s efforts can be seen in employees’ career progression: Many of the 300 fresh graduates that PwC Singapore takes in each year advance to managerial roles within five to seven years.

The strong relationships built also shows in the 6,700-strong alumni community that remain connected: Some of PwC Singapore’s former staff even come back to help in training, or even re-join the company.

This shows the goodwill and social capital PwC Singapore’s human resource policies have built, says Tan Yee Deng, its chief human resource officer. “An engaged workforce sees themselves growing, and will then contribute better because they’re engaged.”

Creating opportunities for all

Over at Murata Electronics Singapore, they champion a multi-generational workforce, ensuring that the older employees have the support they need to thrive alongside the rest of the team.

In one example, senior workers were paired with younger engineers, who helped them use artificial intelligence (AI) technology for quality control jobs. In turn, the older ones shared their expertise and experience with younger team members.

Such arrangements reflect Murata’s deep belief that older workers are a vital part of its workforce, says Eko Ongsono, the company’s general manager of Human Resources. This is one of the reasons the company has been recognised as both a Career Launcher and Career Anchor.

Says Ongsono: “The older generation has a lot of knowledge that you cannot learn within one, two or three years. We value and cherish this kind of knowledge.”

Murata’s efforts have enabled it to retain talent: A quarter of the company’s staff are above the age of 50, and 40 per cent have served more than 10 years.

Ongsono attributes this to the company’s strong culture of care and concern and its focus on building what he calls “psychological safety”, which allows employees to be open about their challenges or even request for job rotations.

At the same time, the company takes pains to upgrade employees in specialist skills and help them grow through leadership training.

Murata’s approach mirrors the SOI findings that the best employers provide fair advancement and retain senior talent and experience. This lets employees feel valued, supported and engaged, creating a ripple effect: When experienced employees stay, younger workers are inspired to do the same by the prospects of career stability and continued growth.

This is exactly what Murata seeks to do, says Ongsono. “When employees have a growth mindset, they naturally seek to improve themselves. Ultimately, the organisation will benefit from stronger talent, higher engagement and sustainable profitability.”

The Ministry of Manpower congratulates the 300 organisations recognised in the Singapore Opportunity Index. Visit www.singaporeopportunityindex.sg for more information.