Fortune launches inaugural 100 Best Companies to Work For list across Southeast Asia

Great Place to Work, the organization that has spent three decades measuring workplace culture globally, brought its signature ranking system to Southeast Asia for the first time this December. The Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For Southeast Asia list emerged from a survey process that reached across ten markets, inviting more than 1.3 million employees to assess whether their workplaces delivered on trust, fairness, and support. Over 550,000 of those employees completed the confidential survey between late 2024 and September 2025, their responses forming the backbone of the inaugural regional rankings.

The Fortune list itself carries weight in North America—it has been published annually in the United States since 1998 and has become one of the most recognized workplace benchmarks on the continent. Expanding it into Southeast Asia represents a significant moment for the region's business culture. Evelyn Kwek, managing director of Great Place to Work ASEAN & ANZ, framed the list as evidence that Southeast Asia had matured into a place where workplace excellence could be measured by the same rigorous international standard. The rankings, she said, reflected organizations that had deliberately built environments where employees felt trusted and supported, and where that trust translated into business growth that benefited workers, communities, and entire economies.

The methodology behind the list is straightforward but demanding. To qualify, a company must first earn Great Place to Work Certification and employ at least 200 people. Rankings are driven primarily by confidential employee feedback—not by what companies say about themselves, but by what workers across all levels, departments, and roles report about their actual experience. Only organizations with consistently high survey responses from their entire workforce can secure a placement.

The top ten companies that emerged from this process tell a story about which sectors and which kinds of organizations are winning the trust of their workers across the region. DHL ranked first, followed by Hilton in second place and Capella Hotels & Resorts in Singapore at third. Cisco, COATS, and Marriott International rounded out the top six. Three of the top ten are healthcare or hospitality companies—Vinmec Healthcare System from Vietnam at seventh, Carelon Global Solutions at eighth, and Bangkok Hospital Headquarter from Thailand at tenth. Highlands Coffee, also from Vietnam, placed ninth. The list includes multinational corporations with regional headquarters in Southeast Asia, global leaders, and homegrown firms that have grown into significant employers.

One pattern stands out in the rankings: Southeast Asian companies themselves are shaping the region's new standard for workplace culture. Vietnam alone placed nine companies on the full list of 100. Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines all showed strong representation. This concentration of ASEAN-headquartered employers signals something about the region's growing sophistication in leadership and employee experience—these are not just branches of distant corporations, but regional centers of decision-making and culture-building.

The hospitality sector's strong showing across the rankings deserves particular attention. Hotel groups and resort operators across Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines have invested in workplace culture with the same seriousness they bring to guest service. Capella's third-place finish, alongside the presence of multiple hotel and food service companies throughout the list, suggests an industry that has fundamentally shifted its approach to how it treats workers. The emphasis has moved toward psychological safety, career development, and employee wellbeing—factors that, the data suggests, correlate with business performance that outpaces competitors regardless of company size, industry, or location.

The full list of 100 companies is available on Great Place to Work's website, offering a comprehensive map of where Southeast Asian workers report the highest levels of trust and support. For employers across the region, the list now sets a measurable standard. For workers, it provides a concrete reference point for what workplace culture can look like when organizations prioritize it intentionally. For the region itself, the inaugural ranking marks a moment when Southeast Asia's approach to people-first business has become sophisticated enough to be measured against the same yardstick used in North America and Europe.