News Summary:
Cisco earns top spot among technology firms in the country, and ranks #2 overall among Singapore Best Workplaces™
Award is based on an independent employee trust audit
- Conscious Culture and Individual Total Wellbeing are key to Cisco's unique workplace culture
SINGAPORE - Media OutReach - 21 December 2020 - Cisco was ranked number two overall among 2020 Singapore Best Workplaces™, it was announced today at a virtual awards ceremony attended by Minister for Manpower Josephine Teo with a message by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat. Cisco has the added distinction of being the top technology company to work for in the country.
The award is given by Great Place to Work®, a global authority on workplace culture, which recognizes organizations with the most exceptional workplace culture practices. At the end of a challenging year characterized by business disruptions and remote operations, Great Place to Work® recognized Cisco's open and transparent work culture for instilling exceptional trust among its employees.
Evelyn Kwek, Managing Director of Great Place to Work® Institute ASEAN and ANZ said, "2020 has been an extraordinary year, with businesses across the board bearing the brunt of the pandemic. However, our results show that the Best Workplaces have not only weathered the storm, but many of them have also risen to the challenge and responded with care for their people, their customers and the community at large. They have demonstrated with their actions that people and profits are not contradictory but complementary. We are proud to honor these workplaces today in the Awards."
The rapid shift in the way businesses worked, brought about by the pandemic, has required massive deployments of innovative enterprise technology to enable secure remote working. During this difficult time, Cisco quickly moved its entire workforce to remote working to keep them safe, while weekly video check-ins helped people stay connected and allowed leaders, including CEO Chuck Robbins, to listen and respond to employees' questions and understand their concerns.
"2020 was a challenging year for both businesses and their employees. Business continuity was the main priority and we quickly realized this can only be achieved by taking care of our employees. As a technology leader, our people worked extra hard in 2020 to support our customers and partners implement remote operations at speed and at scale. I would like to thank everyone at Cisco Singapore for their commitment and resilience," said Andy Lee, Managing Director, Singapore, Cisco.
Building a Conscious Culture
At Cisco, Conscious Culture is a way of life where employees are aware of the environment that they are part of, feel accountable, empowered and actively contribute to a diverse and inclusive culture where everyone feels safe and can thrive.
Lekha George, Head of People and Communities, ASEAN and Korea, Cisco said: "We are honored and proud to be ranked second among Singapore Best Workplaces™. This recognition is made possible through the strength of our culture at Cisco and the progress that we have made to empower our teams, instill trust, passion, and a strong sense of belonging even while we were working remotely during the year. Our emphasis on nurturing a Conscious Culture, that creates a shared sense of accountability, pride and purpose for the workplace, has been a critical enabler."
As a world recognized technology company, a number of rituals are practised across all Cisco teams globally to support an inclusive workplace culture. For example, every team member takes a "StandOut Assessment" that gives insights into their top two strengths and helps team leaders better understand their team members. Every week, employees check-in with their leaders for a focused conversation about work, priorities, loves, loathes and support needed. Every quarter, leaders launch an "Engagement Pulse", a short survey to find out how team members are feeling which thereby triggers courageous conversations and reflections and helps build stronger engagement.
Across the company, Cisco's Employee Resource Organizations (EROs) foster inclusive community networks connecting employees with shared interests and beliefs across all the markets that Cisco operates in, with the goal of driving connections and helping employees unleash their full potential.
At the heart of Cisco's workplace culture is a focus on the "Whole You". Employees are encouraged to take care of themselves and make all aspects of wellbeing (physical, social, emotional and financial) a priority, so that they may give their best at work and at home.
Working with its wellness partner Pavelka, Cisco supports and motivates employees on their wellbeing journey through a range of online and physical resources, wellbeing webinars, team challenges, leadership engagement and sharing stories of individual's wellbeing journey for connection and mutual support among colleagues.
Enabling the Future of Work
As employees also gradually return to the office, Cisco is combining technology and office architecture to create an effective hybrid work environment that ensures employee safety while enabling productivity and collaboration among those who work within the office and at home.
For example, meeting rooms at Cisco's Singapore office are equipped with integrated sensors that detect the number of people in the room to ensure safe distancing guidelines are met, as well as voice activated controls to allow users to join meetings and control other smart devices in the room touch-free.
Cisco has previously been ranked first place on the World's Best Workplaces list by Great Place to Work and Fortune Magazine in both 2019 and 2020. This year's Great Place to Work® study focused on organizations based in Singapore and these Best Workplaces exemplified various characteristics found in people-focused workplace cultures in response to the Covid-19 crisis. Great Place to Work® and its team of culture consultants reviewed and evaluated each of the Culture Audit© submissions with a focus on -- the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the organization, its business and people; the strength and consistency of leadership actions taken in response; the level of care, human-touch and generosity demonstrated in supporting employees and their families; and the breadth of action on their people and communities.
About Great Place to Work® Institute
Great Place to Work® is the global authority on workplace culture. Since 1992, they have surveyed more than 100 million employees around the world and used those deep insights to define what makes a great workplace experience. It boils down to trust. Great Place to Work helps organizations quantify their culture and produce better business results by creating a high-trust work experience for all employees. Emprising™, their culture management platform, empowers leaders with the surveys, real-time reporting and insights they need to make data-driven people decisions. Their unparalleled benchmark data is used to recognize Great Place to Work-Certified™ companies and the Best Workplaces™ in the U.S. and more than 60 countries, including those on the 100 Best Companies to Work For® and World's Best lists published annually by Fortune. Everything they do is driven by the mission to build a better world by helping every organization become a Great Place to Work For All™.
To learn more, visit greatplacetowork.com, listen to the podcast Better by Great Place to Work and read "A Great Place to Work for All." Join the community on 
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Great Place to Work® Institute Singapore established its presence in Singapore since late 2014. Since then, the Singapore office has been the regional hub partnering organizations with operations across the Asia Pacific region.
About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in technology that powers the Internet. Cisco inspires new possibilities by reimagining your applications, securing your data, transforming your infrastructure, and empowering your teams for a global and inclusive future. Discover more on The Network and follow us on Twitter.
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