Across six countries and 219,262 employees surveyed, the 50 organizations that made this year’s inaugural Best Workplaces in Technology Southeast Asia list have one thing in common: their people believe in them.
For the first time ever, Great Place To Work® has surveyed hundreds of thousands of employees across Southeast Asia to find the best technology workplaces in the region. The average Trust Index – the number that shows how much faith an employee has in their workplace – or the organizations that made the list sits at 91.1%. For a typical Southeast Asian company, it is 67.0%.
“The 24-point gap between the Best Workplaces and a typical Southeast Asian company is, for me, the story of this list. Both groups operate in the same markets, hire from the same universities and face the same cost pressures. What separates them is the daily experience of being an employee,” said Evelyn Kwek, Great Place To Work Managing Director for ASEAN and ANZ.
See The Southeast Asia’s Best Workplaces in Technology 2026 List Here
What 175,354 Tech Employees In Southeast Asia Told Us
The Southeast Asia 2026 Best Workplaces in Technology List spans six countries (the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand) and three company size categories: Large, Medium, and Small. Together, the survey represents a regional workforce of 219,262 employees.
With a total of returned surveys at 175,354 employees, the Great Place To Work Best Workplaces in Technology Southeast Asia has created the biggest workplace culture study in the region for 2026. Here’s what all of those tech employees are saying:
| Safety and belonging anchor everything | Pay fairness is still a problem |
| The highest-scoring statement across all six countries was This is a physically safe place to work at 97.5% for Best Workplaces versus 84.7% for the typical SEA company. The next four statements that sit directly below it are all about equity: fair treatment regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, and whether someone feels genuinely welcomed on their first day. These are the foundations, and the best organisations in the region have built on them well. | At the bottom of the scoring table sits I feel I receive a fair share of the profits made by this organization at 75%, even among the top companies. Pay fairness and promotion transparency remain the two statements that drag every category down. At 77% and 78% respectively, these numbers tell a consistent story: the technology sector has made real progress on belonging, and it still has significant ground to cover on economic fairness. |
| Justice leads all focus areas | Culture converts to performance |
| Of the 15 focus areas measured by Great Place To Work, Justice scores highest at 94.1% for Best Workplaces, compared to 69.4% for a typical SEA company. Integrity follows at 91.4%, matching Camaraderie. In a sector defined by rapid change and high performance expectations, employees at the best companies are telling us they feel the rules are applied fairly, and that trust holds when conditions get difficult. | 91% of Best Workplace employees would strongly endorse their company to friends and family. At a typical SEA company, that figure is 62%. Customer service scores follow the same pattern: 92% of Best Workplace employees believe their customers would rate the service they deliver as excellent, versus 69% elsewhere. Organisations that take care of their people consistently produce better outcomes on every measure that matters commercially. |
“The numbers hand us our homework. Fair share of profits sits at the bottom of the table, and promotion transparency close behind. In a market where 1.9 million people work in IT-BPM, employees are entitled to ask how the gains are shared. The companies that answer that question openly will hold on to the best tech talent for the next decade,” said Great Place To Work General Manager, Charles Plumley.
Vietnam’s Impressive Rise
The most striking country-level story on this year’s list comes from Vietnam. At 92.8%, Vietnam’s Trust Index for Best Workplaces is the highest in the region, above Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand. The winning companies from Vietnam on this list spans enterprise tech, software development, security, and energy.
“Vietnam is changing how the region reads its own talent map. Excellence there is becoming ordinary, which is the most demanding thing you can say about any market,” said Evelyn Kwek.
Among the six countries surveyed, Vietnam also records the smallest gap between Best Workplaces and All Great Place To Work Certified companies, which suggests the broader certification ecosystem there is producing consistently strong results, not just outliers.
| Country | Best Workplaces Trust Index Number | All Certified Companies Trust Index Number |
| Vietnam | 92.8% | 90.5% |
| Philippines | 88.9% | 84.3% |
| Singapore | 88.5% | 82.9% |
| Malaysia | 86.9% | 85.4% |
| Indonesia | 83.7% | 82.4% |
| Thailand | 79.5% | 76.5% |
“We’re incredibly proud to be recognised as one of Southeast Asia’s Best Workplaces™ in Technology 2026. This honor reflects the culture our people have built together, one grounded in trust, collaboration, and continuous growth, and reinforces our commitment to creating an environment where every individual can thrive while delivering meaningful impact for our customers.” – Ansarada, Vietnam
The Under-25 Workforce: Southeast Asia’s Most Optimistic Cohort
11% of all respondents on this list are 25 years or younger. Their overall Trust Index score, 91.1% at Best Workplaces, is slightly above the all-ages average. But the details matter more than the headline.
79% of under-25 employees have been with their employer for less than two years. They are predominantly female (58%), almost entirely individual contributors (92%), and arrived during the most turbulent period of technological transformation the region has seen. They are also, by the data, the most trusting and most innovation-ready group on the list.
60% of under-25 employees at Best Workplaces say they have a great deal of trust in their leadership, versus 53% across all age groups. 57% say they have meaningful opportunities to innovate “a lot”, versus 48% overall. For a generation that grew up hearing that institutions cannot be trusted, those numbers are striking.
What they want most aligns with what the best workplaces already deliver. Physical safety, fair treatment regardless of gender or race, and being made to feel welcome on arrival score highest for under-25s, identical in pattern to the all-ages rankings. The welcome statement scores 96.6% for young employees, higher than the all-ages figure of 95.3%, which makes sense: for someone who has been at an organization for less than two years, that first impression shapes everything.
What they are less certain about is more revealing. The statement My work has special meaning: this is not “just a job” scores 78% among under-25s at Best Workplaces — and it does not appear in the all-ages bottom five at all. Young technology employees in Southeast Asia want to feel that what they are building matters. I want to work here for a long time comes in at 80%. These are the two numbers that should keep leadership teams alert.
Vietnam leads the under-25 Trust Index by a clear margin, scoring 95.5% among young Best Workplace employees — the highest country-level figure in the entire dataset. Indonesia (91.5%), Philippines (90.0%), and Malaysia (89.3%) follow, with Singapore (86.7%) and Thailand (83.4%) rounding out the regional picture.
The Scorecard
| Best Workplaces | Typical SEA 2024 | |
| Trust Index | 91.1% | 67.0% |
| Trust in Leadership | 60% | 33% |
| Meaningful Innovation | 57% | 35% |
| Would endorse to friends/family | 91% | 62% |
| Customers rate service “excellent” | 92% | 69% |
| Willing to go extra | 90% | 66% |
| Quickly adapt to change | 91% | 70% |
Under-25 cohort data shown above (Trust Index 91.1%, Leadership Trust 60%, Innovation 57%). Total employees in Best Workplaces: 175,354. Total employees considered in list: 219,262.
The best technology organizations in Southeast Asia have done something straightforward but difficult. They have created workplaces where people believe the rules apply equally, where showing up on the first day feels like being welcomed rather than processed, and where the next generation of technologists feel trusted enough to trust back.
The 23-point Trust Index gap between the best and the rest is a business advantage. It shows up in referrals, in retention, in the willingness to stay late on a hard problem, and in the customer experience scores that follow. The companies on this list got there by deciding that how people feel at work is a leadership responsibility, not an HR metric.
