NTU Singapore has been named one of 'Singapore's Best Employers' by The Straits Times for the second year running.
The listing looked at employer attractiveness from the perspective of the Singaporean workforce, based on a survey of more than 17,000 employees. NTU ranked 120th out of the top 200 employers in Singapore, and was one of 13 higher education institutions on the list.
Ms Tan Aik Na, Senior Vice President for Administration at NTU Singapore said, "Being recognised among Singapore's best employers for the second consecutive year is testament to the dedication and hard work of our faculty and staff as they strive to provide a high-quality educational experience for our students and a rewarding work environment for their colleagues. The recognition this year acknowledges the progress NTU has made on improving employee benefits, developing talent at all levels, and continuously enhancing its employment strategy, through people-first, innovative HR practices."
Technology and leadership are keys to NTU's success
The Best Employers rankings looked at 6 dimensions of employer attractiveness, specifically the atmosphere at work and potential for development, organisation's image, working conditions, workplace environment, salary and diversity.
What sets NTU apart is its increasingly digitally enabled workforce. This is part of the University's commitment to leverage technology to make working easier and more effective. In 2018, NTU embarked on a major digital transformation of its administrative processes by adopting cloud-based enterprise technology that enabled remote work and hybrid learning. At the height of the pandemic in the first quarter of 2020, the transformation to the new systems enabled the University to successfully shift within one week from more than 1,000 in-person lessons weekly to online learning for 30,000 students.
Today, technology continues to play a key role across the 200-hectare NTU Smart Campus, which includes a living lab of digital experiments - from running an autonomous electric bus to testing drones for Singapore's airspace. This forms part of NTU Singapore's 2025 vision in equipping its Smart Campus with cloud-first technology and agile infrastructure.
In addition, access to personalised, flexible online learning and development systems and tools empower NTU employees to have ownership and control over their skills and career development, which contribute to performance excellence across the University.
The University recognises that leadership plays an important part in its success. To cultivate leadership at all levels, the University's Lead@NTU programme brings together leaders from faculty and staff to learn from one another and accelerate their individual leadership development through masterclasses, experiential learning and group coaching. To date, 145 academic and administrative leaders have graduated from the Lead@NTU programmes, and another 80 leaders are scheduled to complete it by the end of this year.
To promote employee wellbeing amid the pandemic, the University held some 30 recreational, wellness and sports events and activities last year, which saw over 45 per cent of employees participating while observing safe management measures. NTU also introduced a Health Coaching Programme, in collaboration with the Health Promotion Board, to encourage employees to adopt better lifestyle habits. The University also enhanced its Flexible Benefits Programme to all eligible staff members for medical coverage, dental, health screening and other expenses.
The latest ranking marks another feather in NTU's cap. In December 2021, NTU was the first university to receive the SkillsFuture Employer Awards, Singapore's highest skills award for employers. Presented by the President of the Republic of Singapore, the Award honours exemplary organisations that champion employees' skills development and build a lifelong learning culture at the workplace.
Singapore's Best Employers 2022 list
The Straits Times and international research firm Statista selected the Singapore's Best Employers List 2022 through an independent survey of more than 17,000 employees working in Singapore.
The evaluation was based on direct and indirect recommendations from employees who were asked to rate their willingness to recommend their own employers to friends and family. Employers are grouped into 27 industry sectors, including education, banking and financial services, IT services, and retail.
Employers were ranked by their total score based on the gathered evaluations. The 200 companies with the best scores - less than 15 per cent of the eligible companies - were included in the list of Singapore's Best Employers.
