Malaysia's First Globally Recognized Best Workplaces List Out This Week

The methodology behind the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For arrives in Malaysia this week, with 20 organizations making the inaugural list based on what 45,000 of their own employees had to say.

SINGAPORE, Feb. 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Between broad economic reforms, the startup boom, and a talent market that's getting more competitive by the quarter, Malaysia is having a moment.

What the country hasn't had, until now, is Great Place To Work. The global authority on workplace culture behind the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For and Best Workplaces™ lists in more than 170 countries is coming. This Thursday, 26 February, Great Place To Work will release the first‑ever Best Workplaces in Malaysia list for 2026.

"We're honored to bring the Best Workplaces recognition to Malaysia for the first time," said Evelyn Kwek, Managing Director of Great Place To Work ASEAN & ANZ. "It's an extremely dynamic time for this country, and as the nation presses forward with these big ambitions for growth, it makes sense for organizations here to have a benchmark for attracting and retaining high-quality talent."

Taking data from over 45,000 individual employee survey responses, representing a workforce of 95,000, it's one of the most comprehensive workplace culture studies Malaysia has seen.

Twenty organisations have made the cut in 2026 across small, medium, and large categories, spanning tech, hospitality, construction, finance, manufacturing, and professional services, a cross-section of the industries driving Malaysia's economy.

How The Best Workplaces Lists Are Decided

The rankings are based on the Great Place To Work Trust Index™ Survey, the same methodology used all over the world. Employees answer questions about what it's really like to work at their company, and Great Place To Work looks at how positive that experience is for all groups, roles, and levels – not just a select few.

To become Great Place To Work Certified, organizations must reach at least a 65% score on the survey. Only Certified organizations are then considered for the Best Workplaces list, where the highest‑scoring companies in each size category are ranked.

"Great Place To Work has accumulated global best practices around people, leadership, and culture from nearly three decades of data," said Kwek. "Those insights are invaluable to Malaysian companies, whether they're homegrown businesses or local operations of multinationals. While Great Place To Work hasn't been in Malaysia until now, we've been operating in this region for more than 12 years with a lot of big clients who have a presence in the country."

Kwek has led the team that also introduced Great Place To Work culture benchmarking to Singapore, The Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand.

"I believe we bring the best of both worlds; global best practices in leadership and people culture, applied with local nuance."

Why Malaysia, Why Now?

Malaysia's economic trajectory, growth ambitions, and increasingly competitive regional talent market have created exactly the kind of conditions where workplace culture becomes a strategic differentiator.

Last year the Malaysian economy grew 5.2% and the ringgit emerged as Asia's best‑performing currency, gaining nearly 9% against the US dollar. Unemployment has fallen to around 3%, its lowest level in a decade, and North American tech giants and cloud providers have committed more than US$23 billion to build data centres and digital infrastructure across the nation.

"We feel it's time to recognize companies which are doing wonderful things, truly great workplaces that top talent might consider working for. Malaysia is definitely a country coming into its own in that respect," Kwek said.

One of the more interesting tensions in Malaysia's current business landscape is the coexistence of a thriving startup ecosystem alongside large, established corporations. Both need strong culture, but for entirely different reasons.

"There is a growing number of startups in Malaysia, and we can help them understand how to scale culture as they grow and expand. For large organizations, the challenge is different, it's about how to amplify culture so that it reaches every part of the business. These are two distinct challenges, and we have the experience and data to support both," Kwek explained.

Scaling culture is straightforward in theory. But what happens when a 40-person company doubles headcount in a single quarter and the informal structures that once held everything together (who talks to whom, how decisions get made, what new hires absorb in their first week) stop working?

"When organizations have a strategic focus on culture, they statistically do better on innovation, adaptability and even revenue," explains Kwek. "High‑trust workplaces earn up to 8.5 times more revenue per employee than the market average. They're also better able to withstand the shocks of an uneven financial climate. Trust is what allows them to absorb that friction and still perform, and often outperform their competitors."

What Comes Next?

Bringing Best Workplaces to Malaysia 2026 is just the beginning. Great Place To Work will be building an annually updated body of evidence about what workplace culture actually looks like in the country, measured by the people who experience it every day.

"One of the key distinguishing factors of Great Place To Work is that our model is built on the idea of a great place to work for all, the ideal of inclusiveness. As Malaysia builds its next-generation workforce, helping organizations build and amplify a culture of trust, regardless of background or where people come from, is foundational. That 'for all' philosophy is what we hope to bring to Malaysia," Kwek said.

For the companies that made the list, it's external validation of something they've been investing in internally. For those that haven't yet participated, the benchmark now exists and a standard has been set.

Want to see who made the list? Sign up to be notified when the inaugural Best Workplaces in Malaysia List 2026 drops on 26 February. REGISTER HERE