The award recognises four of the 10 Best Tech Companies to Work For as overall winners for their implementation of innovative practices and their demonstrated workplace excellence in the infocomm and digital media (ICM) industry.
This year’s Best Tech Company Award ceremony was graced by the Minister of Manpower, Lim Swee Say, and attended by more than 200 senior professionals from the public and private sectors. In his speech, the Minister shared how Singapore is ahead of the curve in driving innovation in the ICT sector. He also praised the 10 best tech companies for providing inclusive opportunities to Singaporeans, and valuing talent based on their skills, helping to drive industry growth.
In its second instalment, the Best Tech Company to Work For Award aims to honour the best infocomm and media workplaces and inculcate a strong people culture across the industry. Nominations were assessed by an independent panel of judges, represented by both public and private sectors in the industry.
Howie Lau, President, Singapore Computer Society, said, “The success of the 10 best tech companies to work for is a testament to the importance of investing in human capital in the midst of a digital revolution. We hope that this award will inspire other technology companies to join us in creating a strong people culture across the industry.”
Standing out from a pool of nominations, the winning companies demonstrated outstanding performance on five criteria: Inspiring people culture, spirit of innovation, financial sustainability, people management and human resource policy. The 10 best tech companies to work for in Singapore are:
10 Best Tech Companies to Work For 2017
Accenture
is a leading global professional services company providing services
and solutions in strategy consulting, digital, technology and
operations. In a video celebrating Accenture's win, staff spoke of
access to the latest technologies and their dedication to build future
technology leaders through hands-on learning.
Winning qualities
• Strong team spirit, with passion and pride displayed by everyone
•
Revolutionary performance management system accompanied with solid
mentorship programme, where the bell curve distribution is removed and
each individual is assessed by their mentor and not direct boss
• Promotes a learning culture with digital, social and mobile learning materials available at all levels
• Carousell
Winner – Small Organisations/Startups category
10 Best Tech Companies to Work For 2017
Carousell
created a marketplace that makes it easy for preloved items to find new
homes. Its goal is to become the No. 1 mobile classifieds marketplace
in all markets. A video of Carousell's employees reflected the company's
open culture, which is focused on problem solving. "The people here are
very driven to solve problems for our customers," said one employee.
Winning qualities
• Great mission and vision for social impact - ability to humanise their mission stories
• Significant time and effort spent in the hiring process to find the right hire to fit into the culture
• Strong culture and great vibes in the office, with the ability to attract good talent
• EON Reality
10 Best Tech Companies to Work For 2017
EON Reality is the world leader in virtual and augmented reality (AR)-based knowledge transfer for industry and education. The company aims to make knowledge available, affordable, and accessible for everyone. Staff shared in the video profiling Eon Reality that they are exposed to lots of new technology and are constantly learning.
Winning qualities
• Leaders are sincere and people-oriented
• Excites employees on the huge potential of AR for applications in education, healthcare, smart city planning
• Transparent corporate culture and staff are trusted and empowered
• IBM Singapore
10 Best Tech Companies to Work For 2017
IBM
is a globally integrated technology and consulting company. The company
is focused on helping organisations embark on their cognitive journeys,
built on a strong foundation of cloud, big data and analytics, and
security. According to a video on IBM, people form the heartware of the
organisation, and use IBM technology to help businesses grow. "We work
together and grow together to become business partners, it's like a
friendship formed," said one staff.
Winning qualities
• Sense of sincerity and authenticity among the leadership team
• Prides itself as a company that is essential and socially relevant
• Open workspaces that encourage collaboration
• Razer
Joint winner – Large Organisations/ MNCs category
Razer is the leading lifestyle brand for gamers. Its mission is to be the world’s greatest brand for gamers. "We are always one team, we're always bigger than ourselves as a person," said Min-Liang Tan, Razer CEO, on video. "We play hard, and we play fair."
In her acceptance speech, Patricia Liu, Chief Customer Officer, Razer, said that the company is "made up of gamers who design and make products for gamers". "We constantly ask ourselves what kind of environment do gamers need to be phenomenal and that's the approach that we take to design our workplace and our culture," she said.
Joint winner – Large Organisations/ MNCs category
Razer is the leading lifestyle brand for gamers. Its mission is to be the world’s greatest brand for gamers. "We are always one team, we're always bigger than ourselves as a person," said Min-Liang Tan, Razer CEO, on video. "We play hard, and we play fair."
In her acceptance speech, Patricia Liu, Chief Customer Officer, Razer, said that the company is "made up of gamers who design and make products for gamers". "We constantly ask ourselves what kind of environment do gamers need to be phenomenal and that's the approach that we take to design our workplace and our culture," she said.
Winning qualities
• Inspiring and charismatic leader
• Appealing to young working adults, especially gamers
• Puts in sincere efforts to groom local talent
• Red Hat Asia Pacific
Joint winner – Large Organisations/ MNCs category
10 Best Tech Companies to Work For 2017
Red Hat is the world's leading provider of open source software solutions. Its mission is to be the catalyst in communities of customers, contributors, and partners, creating better technology the open source way. Red Hat has translated open source principles into principles that connect business success to personal growth, staff said in the accompanying video. The company has a cross-department mentorship programme, for example.
Richard Koh, Country Manager, Singapore, Red Hat, said the win recognises the open source culture all Red Hatters live and breathe daily. "We're an open organisation, we firmly believe in meritocracy," he said. "All Red Hatters are given equal opportunities."
Koh also brought up 'kampong spirit', where villagers would pitch in to help each other, to recognise the efforts of others. "By working together we can actually make the infocomm industry a lot more vibrant and an attractive destination for talent," he said.
Winning qualities
• Strong sense of identity amongst employees, shown by the low staff turnover rate and high Glassdoor rating
• Openness, transparency and innovation is embedded in the company DNA
• Emphasis on training, and sets aside a generous training budget for external training programmes
• ST Electronics (Info-Comm Systems)
10 Best Tech Companies to Work For 2017
ST
Electronics is a leading info-communication technology solutions
provider in Asia delivering solutions in intelligent transportation,
public safety and security, smart infocommunications technology (ICT)
infrastructure, cyber security and defence. ST Electronics (Info-Comm
Systems) has many HR initiatives to attract and retain staff, shared
employees in an associated video. There is a 'work hard and play harder'
spirit at the company, they said.
Winning qualities
• Strong family-friendly and Singapore kampong-spirit culture
• Well-structured HR programmes that attract and retain both the young and matured working professionals
• Encourages innovation and provides seed funding to try worthy ideas
• Tableau Asia Pacific
10 Best Tech Companies to Work For 2017
Tableau
is on a mission to help people see and understand their data. "High
energy, vibrant and dynamic" were adjectives used by Tableau staff to
describe themselves.
Winning qualities
• High energy and dynamic workforce with cool workspace
•
Empowering staff (even non-IT staff) to use Tableau's own products for
data analytics to generate meaningful and impactful businesses
• Appealing to young working adults (both IT and non-IT)
• Tinkerbox Studios
10 Best Tech Companies to Work For 2017
Tinkerbox
Studios is a design and development studio on a mission to build
innovative products that changes lives for the better. The company has
code reviews which give feedback on how they can improve the quality of
their software. "For me it's like a family," one staff said on video.
Winning qualities
• Promotes a strong culture of learning and experimentation, eg. TinkerThursday for dinner as a team in the office to share ideas.
•
Great talent development programme and strong sense of mission and
dedication to train a good pool of developers for the better of the
industry, eg. the intern was so impressed with the coding standards that
he joined the company after graduation.
•
Emphasis on peer code reviewing to enhance quality of the codes, which
further demonstrates their commitment to culture of quality codes and
peer support.
Winner – Mid-sized Organisations category
10 Best Tech Companies to Work For 2017
Titansoft
is a software development and consultancy company specialising in
gaming and entertainment. Its vision is to empower customers to become
global leaders in their respective industries. Titansoft's motto is to
never stop improving. The company has striven to create an environment
which is very open, one where staff can learn something new every day.
The company has a unique self-promotion model, in which staff initiate the process to promote themselves when they think they are ready. They first undergo self-assessment, then a technical assessment followed by a panel interview. In the accompanying video, an employee from Titansoft said the company is "creating an environment I actually want to work with."
The company has a unique self-promotion model, in which staff initiate the process to promote themselves when they think they are ready. They first undergo self-assessment, then a technical assessment followed by a panel interview. In the accompanying video, an employee from Titansoft said the company is "creating an environment I actually want to work with."
Winning qualities
•
Daring and advanced in implementing latest thinking in human resources
and organisation development (HR & OD) practices, eg. Self-promotion
and self-organising agile development teams
•
Open and transparent culture that values bottom-up initiatives, e.g.
When the self-promotion idea was suggested by the Technical Manager and
not HR
• Highly committed workforce that is empowered and serious with their self-development and peer reviews
“Our vision is of an inclusive ecosystem in which Singaporeans can maximise the use of the resources available, and fully access to all opportunities in the industry. It is made possible thanks to the support from our partners, including Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), Workforce Singapore (WSG) and e2i (Employment and Employability Institute),” Lau said.
The Best Tech Company to Work For Award is a manifestation of the collaboration between industry partners to support ICM professionals and drive industry development.
“Singapore is in the middle of the most dynamic region in the world that is rapidly digitalising, and our infocomm and media sector is well-positioned to benefit from this growth. To do so, companies will need to be at the forefront of adopting policies and practices to attract and retain talent in this industry. IMDA is pleased to honour the achievements of the companies awarded with the Best Tech Company to Work For Award, which celebrates the spirit of innovation, the creativity and passion of our people, as we work towards building a digital economy,” said Tan Kiat How, Chief Executive, Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).
Tan Choon Shian, Chief Executive, WSG said, “In this changing manpower landscape, it is critical for employers to put in place progressive human capital practices and take greater ownership in grooming talents for the future, to enhance their competitiveness. I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to the award winners, and I hope more companies will emulate these role models and adopt progressive human capital practices to develop and retain their employees.”
In addition to the award, SCS has also partnered e2i to co-organise an Infocomm Technology Career Fair which will run from August to September. “e2i has been working with industry partners to enable ICM professionals to stay updated and deepen their competencies through training, networking and masterclasses. We have also initiated integrated career fairs to improve job matching. As tripartite partners, e2i is committed to work with SCS to provide enhanced career support for ICM professionals and companies on skills development and job placement,” the CEO of e2i Gilbert Tan said.
More details about the Information Technology Career Fair will be announced in August.
SCS has over 31,000 members. Established in 1967, the society serves as a key platform for professionals to network with established practitioners, advance their careers, and sharpen their skills and knowledge in order to stay ahead of the latest trends and best practices in the infocomm and digital media industries.
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| Source: SCS. From left: Howie Lau, President, Singapore Computer Society; Tan Choon Shian, Chief Executive, Workforce Singapore (WSG); Andrew Chow, President, ST Electronics (Info-Comm Systems); Sam Liew, MD, Technology, ASEAN, Accenture; Lum Seow Khun, Director, Sales & Transformation, IBM Singapore; Marcus Tan, Co-Founder & President, Carousell; Patricia Liu, Chief Customer Officer, Razer; Lim Swee Say, Minister for Manpower; Richard Koh, Country Manager, Singapore, Red Hat (wearing red hat); Wong Yew Choy, Director of Titansoft; Khoong Hock Yun, Chief Digital Evangelist, Infocomm Media Development Authority; Gilbert Tan, CEO, e2i (Employment and Employability Institute); Kelvin Tham, COO & Co-Founder, Tinkerbox Studios; Sridhar Sunkad; MD, EON Reality and Cherilyn Tay, Territory Development Manager, Tableau. |
*SCS defined the three categories as large organisations or multinational companies (MNCs), mid-sized organisations (SMEs) of 50 to 200 employees, and startups or small parties with up to five years of incorporation, or fewer than 50 employees. Nominations began in September 2016, and the evaluation process included site visits, and employee interaction sessions.
