TWENTY Philippine companies have been named among Asia’s best workplaces for 2026, including six small and medium businesses, giving the Philippines the largest number of small employers among Southeast Asian markets on the list.
The Best Workplaces in Asia 2026 list, published Thursday by Great Place To Work, ranks 200 companies across the region based on employee survey responses. It includes 100 large employers with at least 500 employees in Asia and 100 small and medium businesses with between 50 and 499 employees.
Atomy, a retail company included in the small and medium category, ranked first among all small and medium workplaces in Asia, improving from third place last year. It was also the highest-ranked Philippine company in either category.
The workplace rankings come as the Philippines faces high employee turnover. Aon's 2025 Salary Increase and Turnover Study, which surveyed more than 700 businesses across six countries, projects that 20 percent of skilled Filipino workers will change jobs in 2026. Singapore follows at 19.3 percent and Malaysia at 18.2 percent.
The results place the Philippines in a notable position: It has one of the region's highest projected turnover rates while also recording a strong showing among smaller employers in a workplace ranking based on employee feedback.
Small businesses stand out
Singapore led Southeast Asia with 25 companies on the overall list, followed by Vietnam with 24, the Philippines with 20, Indonesia with 19, Thailand with 18 and Malaysia with 15.
The Philippines' position becomes more significant when company size is considered. Six of its 20 entries, or 30 percent, are small and medium businesses.
Thailand and Malaysia each placed one small or medium business. Across Asia, only the United Arab Emirates, with 22, Japan, with 16, and Sri Lanka, with 10, placed more small and medium companies than the Philippines. India, which had roughly twice as many companies on the overall list, also had six small and medium entrants.
Aside from Atomy, the Philippine small and medium businesses included professional services company NeoWork at 26th; DBP Service Corporation at 50th; and information technology companies Kollab at 48th, Arcanys at 79th and Etrading Software Manila at 80th.
IT companies dominate
Information technology accounted for eight of the Philippines' 20 entries, or 40 percent of the country's total. It was the largest industry concentration among Southeast Asian markets, although Singapore had six IT companies among its 25 overall entries.
The strong presence of IT companies corresponds with the importance of the information technology and business process management sector to Philippine employment and exports. The sector employs about 1.9 million people and generated roughly $40 billion in export revenue in 2025, according to the supplied material.
The sector has also revised its growth expectations. In July, the industry association lowered its 2028 employment target from 2.5 million jobs to 2.14 million, citing artificial intelligence, changing buyer behavior and global competition. The revised projection represents 360,000 fewer jobs than the previous target.
Financial services was the second-largest industry cluster among Philippine entries. Synchrony ranked 12th in Asia, followed by the Bank of the Philippine Islands at 64th and American Express at 88th. No other Southeast Asian market had more than two companies from the sector.
The Philippine entries came from eight industries, the narrowest industry spread among Southeast Asian markets in the ranking. Vietnam's companies represented 14 industries.
Capital One posts biggest gain
Capital One recorded the largest year-on-year improvement among Philippine companies, moving from 85th to 46th place, a gain of 39 positions. Great Place To Work's year-on-year data identified the improvement as the third-largest gain by a company in Southeast Asia.
Kollab climbed 20 places to 48th, while Visa rose 19 places to 39th. Etrading Software Manila gained nine places to reach 80th.
Six Philippine companies were new to this year's list: NeoWork at 26th, DBP Service Corporation at 50th, Carelon Global Solutions Philippines at 53rd, Concentrix at 58th, Bank of the Philippine Islands at 64th and Balibago Waterworks System at 71st.
The Philippine list also included companies from banking, water utilities, professional services and other industries, alongside the larger concentration of technology and financial services companies.
Employee feedback drives ranking
Great Place To Work's ranking is based on employee responses rather than a judging panel. Employees answer 60 statements using a five-point scale, along with two open-ended questions.
The questions cover areas including whether leaders are accessible and honest, whether compensation and promotions are fair and whether employees find their work meaningful.
The methodology also considers consistency in employee responses within a company. A workplace with positive experiences concentrated in one part of the organization can therefore rank below one where employees across different teams report more consistent experiences.
Companies cannot purchase a position on the list, according to the supplied material.
Now in its 12th year, the Asia ranking draws on surveys covering companies employing more than 8.9 million people across 36 countries and territories. More than 3.8 million individual employee responses were included.
Hilton ranked first among large workplaces in Asia and was also included on the Philippine list. It was followed by Marriott International, Cisco, DHL and Accenture.
The Philippine results point to a workplace landscape in which smaller companies are accounting for a relatively large share of recognized employers even as the country's labor market faces significant employee turnover and its major technology-driven employment sector adjusts its growth expectations.
