Keynote Address by MOS Dinesh Vasu Dash at Launch of Singapore Workplace Report 2026
Mr Dinesh Vasu Dash, Minister of State for Manpower, Andaz Singapore Hotel
Singapore Institute of Directors Vice Chair Mr Adrian Chan
Singapore Institute of Directors CEO Ms Emily Poon
Gallup CEO Mr Jon Clifton
Gallup Southeast Asia Regional Director Ms Kanika Singh
Distinguished Guests
Good morning.
2. It is a pleasure to be here with you for the launch of the inaugural Singapore Workplace Report, produced by both the Singapore Institute of Directors and Gallup.
Singapore’s Competitive Advantage is Our People
3. We are here to discuss an important part of Singapore’s workplaces — our people.
4 This is against the backdrop of profound changes that we are seeing, particularly technological changes. Increasingly, it is important that we unlock the potential of our people, so that they can continue to thrive, and Singapore can continue to remain economically competitive. The Government is committed to equipping Singaporeans for the long haul with skills and tools for development, and to provide resources to harness digitalisation and AI adoption for the purpose of innovation and improving productivity. Positive workplace cultures can therefore help, and it is perhaps most crucial in ensuring that our workers contribute, grow and perform at their best.
Good Jobs Create the Conditions for People to Thrive
5. We spend a significant part of our lives at work, as Gallup CEO, Jon Clifton, had shared. Work is about more than just earning a living. It shapes our wellbeing, aspirations and sense of purpose. A good job, therefore, is one that supports our workforce in achieving its full potential and its purpose.
6. While the factors that comprise a ‘good job’ may vary across individuals based on their own perspectives, these factors broadly fall into three key categories:
I. First, how the organisation treats its workers, such as providing fair wages, benefits and other key terms of employment, and ensuring that the workplace is adequate for the work that the workers are expected to do. You could almost say that these are the hygiene factors — the baseline that we need to have.
II. Second, empowering workers to do their jobs well and investing in workers’ development. Incidentally, over the weekend, I had a programme called the East Coast Internship Programme, where we had 18-year-olds joining us. What we did was we allowed them to come up with their own suggestions, and they created a Family Day. There were a lot of booths, and they were engaging young residents of my area. What I noticed is that because they were given autonomy, the level of engagement and the outcomes that they had were tremendous. I am sure this could be included in workplaces by providing autonomy for workers to share ideas of how they want their careers to be structured and their training pathways.
III. Lastly, a good workplace relationship with supervisors, colleagues and teams, which again strengthens the sense of belonging, ownership and purpose within the firms.
7. Having these conditions will allow our workers to feel engaged, valued and supported. They are more likely to be invested fully in their work and even go the extra mile to collaborate and innovate, as seen by the example that I just highlighted. It is this important quality of engagement that today’s report seeks to speak to, and how business leaders, employers and workers can strengthen employee engagement across Singapore’s workplaces.
Employee Engagement Drives Economic and Social Outcomes
8. Gallup’s 2026 State of the Global Workplace report studied employee experiences across the world, using seven indicators of organisational resilience and performance. The findings showed that strengths and gaps varied across different countries.
9. For Singapore, we performed better in the area of overall wellbeing. 40% of Singapore’s employees rated their lives positively. This is in comparison with the Southeast Asian average of 36% and the global average of 34%.
10. However, only 14% said that they were engaged at work. This prompts us to ask the question: how can we build an engaged workforce and a workplace together?
11. Good jobs and engaged workplaces are built deliberately. The dimensions of good jobs set out the strategic directions that organisations should pursue for a thriving workforce, while measures of employee engagement allow organisations to identify opportunities to do more to bring out the best in their workers.
12. Together, they give firms a practical roadmap for an engaged workforce that benefits all parties. For workers, engagement brings about a deeper sense of purpose and greater resilience through changes over the course of their career. For employers, an engaged workforce translates into productivity, talent retention, and organisations that are better placed to adapt and innovate. For Singapore, an engaged workforce accrues to a powerful engine of sustained economic growth and, most importantly, social cohesion.
13. Business leaders and employers are key stakeholders in this journey to strengthen workplace engagement and workplace culture in general.
Building Better Workplaces is a Shared Tripartite Effort
A. Strengthening Workplace Fairness and Worker Protections
14. To enable all workers to thrive, the Government works closely with tripartite partners to strengthen fair and inclusive workplaces, including through our legislative and regulatory tools. Therefore, fair and merit-based workplaces are a matter of principle, and a foundation on which better workplaces can be built.
15. Given trends such as an evolving workforce profile, more diverse work arrangements, increasing use of AI, and a more competitive business environment, tripartite partners have taken steps to ensure that our policies remain fit-for-purpose. One key milestone is the Workplace Fairness Act, which was passed in Parliament in 2025 to strengthen protections against workplace discrimination.
16. Tripartite partners are also reviewing the Employment Act to protect workers who might need it most while supporting businesses and their flexibility, and the recommendations will be released later this year.
B. Recognising and Elevating Good Human Capital Practices
17. Alongside fair and inclusive workplaces, we also established the Tripartite Workgroup on Human Capital Capability Development to make a push on uplifting our human capital capability amidst increasing manpower and business constraints.
18. The full suite of the Workgroup’s recommendations will be shared later this year. But we have already seen one example being launched recently: the Singapore Opportunity Index, or the SOI. It provides an objective, data-driven view of workforce outcomes such as pay, progression, hiring, retention and gender parity across firms.
19. Using data from almost 1,500 companies and close to a million residents, the SOI offers a data-driven approach to measure how career mobility is forged in the workplace and complements employee engagement surveys, which capture how workers feel about their experience at work. Together, they give employers a more complete picture — not just of sentiment, but of whether their workplace is progressive and is succeeding.
20. For employers, this is an opportunity to be intentional about workplace and workforce development. For many organisations, human capital is treated as an HR function, rather than to have strategic discussions on it and how the workforce capability and resilience can be strengthened as a result. I want to suggest that this may even be a strategic liability.
21. Reframing human capital as a strategic issue requires leadership at the highest level. When human capital is treated with the same rigour and discipline as financial capital, organisations make better decisions about their people, and these better decisions translate directly into better long-term performance.
C. Preparing Our Companies and Workforce for an AI-Enabled Future
22. Today’s report also highlights how AI adoption is a key force reshaping Singapore’s workplaces and culture. According to the 2025 World Economic Forum Future of Jobs report, AI and shifting business needs will require changes in the skill sets of workers. In the next five years, two in five skills will be transformed or become obsolete. Investing in workplaces and workers to harness AI and its potential can both sustain employee engagement and ensure that workers and companies thrive in an AI-enabled workplace of the future.
23. The Government is investing significantly to help companies harness the use of AI, and to help every Singaporean build the skills that are needed in the changing world of work.
I. Through SkillsFuture, we have expanded access to AI-related courses so that workers at every stage of their career can pick up relevant skills and practical knowledge that they will require. We have also made available free six-month subscriptions to premium AI tools for those enrolled in selected SkillsFuture AI courses, so that they can practise, experiment and apply whatever they have learnt. These are not token gestures, but they are part of a sustained national commitment to lifelong learning. I wanted to say that this is just one element of it, and the need for us to also manage the emotional aspects, as was mentioned by Jon earlier, is equally, if not more, important. AI, after all, is just a tool, and it depends really on how it is being applied.
II. We have also announced plans to form the Tripartite Jobs Council — you may have heard this quite recently — which will then bring together both employers, unions, and the Government to support businesses and workers in navigating this transition to an AI-driven economy. Our objective is to ensure that workers and businesses are well-positioned to benefit from AI-driven transformation. So, not just about CPF and maximising or minimising taxes, but also to ensure that we have positive workplace environments, a positive workplace culture to bring us forward in the next couple of decades.
Conclusion: The Opportunity Before U
24. The findings in today’s report, therefore, are a very good reminder that good workplaces are where workers thrive and where businesses also succeed. All of us have a role to play in ensuring that this is possible, not only for our workers, but to ensure that Singapore continues to thrive and remains competitive in a changing world, a shining red dot in this part of the world.
25. I wish you a wonderful day ahead. Thank you very much.