Key Insights
- Singapore has the lowest employee capability result across eight markets surveyed.
- HR leaders in Singapore scored workplace capability at 71.8.
- Report estimates a 10-point improvement in the index is worth about SGD 1.25 million a year per.
Singapore is investing heavily in workforce transformation. Skills programs are expanding, digital tools are spreading, and AI is quickly becoming part of the operating conversation.
Yet the latest Culture and Capability Index by Cornerstone suggests a more complicated reality inside organizations. In Singapore, leaders are far more confident in workplace capability than employees are.
Cornerstone’s report looked at whether organizations have the systems, behaviors and employee experience needed to build skills, support mobility, lead through change, strengthen trust and prepare people for what comes next.
The APJ Edition 2026 surveyed 1,297 HR leaders and 2,435 employees across eight Asia Pacific markets, measuring workplace capability on a 0 to 100 scale from two perspectives: what HR leaders say the organization enables, and what employees say they actually experience.
Singapore’s HR leaders scored 71.8. Employees scored 56.5, the lowest employee score in the study, sitting below the report’s threshold for “lagging”, which Cornerstone defines as significant gaps in the systems, behaviors and experiences needed to build culture and capability.
Across APJ, organizations operate within the Progressing capability band (81.5), based on HR leaders’ assessments of workforce capability.Why is workplace capability in Singapore falling short?
One of the more revealing findings in the report is that Singapore’s smallest gap appears in Learning Activation. At 6.4 points, this is the area where employee and HR leader views are closest. Employees can see the training effort. They are less convinced by the broader conditions around it.
The wider gaps sit in the parts of working life that shape whether transformation feels credible. In Singapore, the leader-employee gap reaches 21.5 points in AI & Workforce Planning, 20.6 in Leadership & Change Capability, 18.2 in Culture, Engagement & Trust, and 17.5 in Mobility & Career Pathways.
DOWNLOAD CORNERSTONE’S THE HIDDEN NUMBER: THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF CULTURE AND CAPABILITY
Training may be visible, but employees are still uncertain about leadership, future pathways, cultural trust and whether workforce planning is being handled in a way that supports them.
What does low workplace capability cost Singapore employers?
Cornerstone’s report is especially useful where it links capability to business outcomes, then gives leaders a way to quantify the cost of weak execution. For Singapore, the model estimates that a 10-point improvement in the Culture and Capability Index would unlock SGD 1,249,966 in annual value per 1,000 employees. That is fair to round to SGD 1.25 million.
Across the APJ model, the biggest shares of that value come from reduced attrition at 43%, lower absenteeism at 21% and hiring efficiency at 13%. Cornerstone ties these measures to business outcomes with clear financial consequences.
Culture, Engagement & Trust is also the single biggest value lever in Singapore, accounting for SGD 367,808 of the estimated total. Across APJ, Cornerstone says this pillar contributes about 30% of total economic impact, making it the strongest contributor to workforce outcomes in the report.
Why employee experience matters in workforce transformation
The report lands as so many organizations are moving quickly on transformation, especially where AI and workforce redesign are concerned. Yet the findings suggest that activity alone is not the same thing as capability, and capability alone is not the same thing as employee experience.
This year’s Great Place To Work and UKG report on AI ROI found that while 85% of employees may have access to AI tools, only 44% are excited and trust their employer to use AI ethically. It also shows adoption only improves at scale and speed when employees understand why change is happening, receive role-specific training and trust their employer’s intent.
Read in tandem, the two reports point in the same direction. Transformation works best when employees are not just told what is changing, but are given clarity, credibility and proof that the change is being managed in their interests.
How do employers improve workplace capability in Singapore?
The first step is to measure both sides of the story. Cornerstone’s report is built on a dual-lens approach for good reason. Leadership confidence matters, but it is not enough on its own. Employers need to understand whether capability is being experienced consistently across teams, roles and levels.
The second is to focus on the system, not a single fix. Cornerstone is explicit on this point: learning without skills visibility limits effectiveness, culture without leadership credibility is hard to sustain, and workforce planning without mobility makes execution weaker. The report argues that the strongest gains come when capability is treated as an interconnected system.
The third is to make change legible. Employees are more likely to trust transformation when leaders explain what is changing, what it means for different roles, and how the organization will support people through it. This is where employee listening becomes practical, not ornamental. It gives employers a way to test whether the message that left the executive team actually arrived intact on the ground.
DOWNLOAD CORNERSTONE’S THE HIDDEN NUMBER: THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF CULTURE AND CAPABILITY
