New Singapore Opportunity Index to recognise 300 top employers for nurturing local talent

SINGAPORE – From the first quarter of 2026, workers here can visit a new website to discover the 300 employers most committed to providing career and salary growth, as measured by a new index.

The move is also meant to spur companies to pull their weight in attracting, retaining and nurturing talent, complementing both government workforce policies and workers’ own upskilling efforts.

To achieve all this, the Singapore Opportunity Index takes into account employers’ performance across various pay, progression, gender parity, retention and hiring metrics.

Unveiling the index at an industry event on Oct 14, Minister for Manpower Tan See Leng said it offers a clearer understanding of how employers’ practices shape worker outcomes.

He was speaking at the People Behind People Forum 2025, a one-day event organised by the Institute for Human Resource Professionals. Some 750 delegates attended the forum, held at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre.

Dr Tan added that the Singapore Opportunity Index is not intended to rank employers.

Instead, the goal is to help organisations take concrete steps to better develop talent based on objective and consistent data that they do not need to pay for.

The first edition of the index evaluates nearly 1,500 companies, each employing at least 100 local residents. Together, they account for nearly one million residents – or around 45 per cent of all Singaporeans and permanent residents in the workforce.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) partnered the Singapore University of Social Sciences and American independent think-tank The Burning Glass Institute to develop the index.

Unlike employee surveys by private-sector providers, the index uses government data sets on occupational employment.

Ahead of the 2026 release for the list of top companies, a report on overall trends across the nationally representative sample was released on Oct 14.

The report can be found

here.

The list will also be published on the website.

The sample contains 1,420 private-sector employers and 79 public-sector employers.

Going by size, there are 544 medium-sized companies employing 100 to 199 residents, with the rest employing more than 200 residents.

MOM also said there are 818 foreign-owned companies and 681 local-owned companies in the sample.

All employers scored on the index will receive confidential reports on their strengths, relative performance and potential areas for improvement.

At a media briefing before the announcement, an MOM spokesman said the index includes only those that employ at least 100 residents to ensure the results are statistically meaningful.

“(For) a very small firm, some of the methodologies that we apply may not make sense or cannot be... benchmarked against other firms.”

Nonetheless, he said, the Government is exploring how to ensure smaller companies benefit from the index, such as by working with them on applying the index more selectively, and sharing applicable best practices from top companies.

The spokesman said MOM is naming only the top 300 companies to give job seekers a useful reference, while keeping the list manageable for the ministry to study and share best practices in detail.

Asked if the index could make recruitment harder for companies not on the list, the spokesman said it is not a bad thing for workers to discover and move to better-scoring companies in search of more career mobility.

There are no plans yet to tie companies’ performance on the index to incentives such as additional foreign worker quota or tax breaks, he said.

Some employer incentives are already embedded in existing workforce policies such as the Complementarity Assessment Framework, the points-based system used to decide whether to issue an Employment Pass to a foreign professional.

The spokesman added: “Part of the whole motivation of introducing this (index) is to recognise that... it is not just about individuals going out to upskill themselves. It is really about the role that employers play, how we measure that, and how do we foster best practice around that.”

In his speech, Dr Tan noted that employers in similar market environments still reap different outcomes, depending on how they choose to hire, develop and manage people.

For example, workers at companies in the top 20 per cent on the index are 2.2 times more likely to stay past their first year, compared with those in the bottom 20 per cent of companies.

These workers also earn 3.4 times more and have an 86 per cent chance of getting a higher wage in their next role, he added.

Moreover, top-performing employers can be found in every sector, as well as across company sizes, Dr Tan said.

“(While) top employers share the same commitment to people, they create opportunities in different ways.”

Some act as “career launchers”, opening doors to overlooked talent and offering opportunities to candidates based on skills rather than qualifications.

“They help people make a strong start or re-entry into the workforce by removing unnecessary entry hurdles,” added Dr Tan.

Others are “career builders” that nurture talent through structured pathways.

“They invest in their people, they promote employees and develop leaders from within.”

There are also some that serve as “career anchors” by strengthening their workforce through stable, long-term employment and a culture of trust, Dr Tan said.

To be classified under any of these three categories, an employer must score among the top 20 per cent for a subset of metrics.

For instance, career launchers are more open to hiring first-time workers and those re-entering the workforce after a break. They focus less on credentials and more on demonstrated skills.

Companies scored on the index may receive nods under one or more categories, even if they are outside the list of 300 employers.

The index is the first recommendation from the Tripartite Workgroup on Human Capital Capability Development formed in March to be implemented.