Case Study: Why 86% of Sunway Group Employees Are Proud to Work There

Sunway Group spans 13 business divisions, including healthcare, education, real estate, construction, leisure, retail and hospitality, among others, with a presence in more than 50 locations worldwide. Hand a survey to 20,000 people whose jobs range from theme park ambassador to neurosurgeon and the results should scatter.

When the Malaysian conglomerate ran its first Great Place To Work Trust Index™ survey, one statement came back as the top scorer in every single division: ‘I’m proud to tell others I work here.’ 86% of employees agreed.

The culture being tested predates the survey by five decades. Since its founding in 1974, Sunway has operated on the philosophy that it can ‘do well by doing good,’ and built its people practices to match: by focusing on nation building and giving back to the community through #SunwayforGood community programs, and maintaining its focus on sustainability while still growing as a company.

Key outcomes

The insight: a second opinion on five decades of culture

Sunway has been measuring its own culture for years. A continuous listening platform runs across every business division, feeding leadership real-time engagement data, pulse survey results and comparisons against peer organisations. The Group knew how its people felt. What it wanted was an independent answer to a harder question: how does that culture measure up against a global standard?

For a conglomerate this varied, the first Trust Index result answered a question leadership had long wondered about. Does anything unite a workforce this diverse? The data said yes, and named it.

Sunway first dug into the division-level data to find where the highest scores were concentrated, and which parts of the business held lessons worth copying. Then it ran internal pulse surveys to test whether the Trust Index findings held up over time. They did. With multiple data sources pointing the same way, leadership had the confidence to move.

The programs: support from two months old to senior living

Sunway’s wellbeing programs work from a plain observation: what happens outside work shapes what happens inside it. The Group organises its efforts across four areas: family, mental health, physical health and financial wellbeing.

Family: childcare on campus, from two months old

Sunway Little Sunshine Childcare Centre, opened in 2018 and run in-house by Group Human Resources, sits near Sunway’s offices and stays open from 7:30am to 7pm. It takes children from two months old, and staff receive a childcare fee subsidy of up to 55%.

Parents’ Choice has named it Best Baby & Childcare Centre five years running, from 2022 to 2026. For parents returning from leave, it removes the biggest practical obstacle to coming back. At the other end of the family span, staff caring for ageing parents receive discounted access to Sunway Sanctuary, the Group’s senior living facility.

Mental health: 24/7 support in four languages

An Employee Assistance Program, run since 2020 with The Mind, a psychology centre, gives staff round-the-clock confidential access to registered clinical psychologists, health psychologists and licensed counsellors. The hotline operates 24/7 in English and Malay, with counseling sessions also available in Mandarin and Cantonese.

Physical health: doctors from the Group’s own hospitals

Virtual health talks, led by medical professionals from Sunway Healthcare Group’s own centres, draw an average of more than 300 participants per session and over 1,600 staff a year. Topics run from nutrition and heart health to posture correction and workplace stress.

Flexibility and finances: policy, in writing

A workforce that is supported in their personal lives shows up more fully at work. With this in mind, a Flexible Working Arrangement embedded in company policy gives staff the autonomy to adjust their start and end times around personal and family commitments.

Wellbeing at Sunway extends beyond the physical and mental. Financial literacy programs help employees build long-term security by covering practical topics such as tax planning, personal finance management and savings strategies, equipping them with knowledge that makes a real difference to their lives outside the
office.

To foster a genuine sense of belonging, Kelab Sosial Sunway, the Group’s social club, brings staff together across divisions through sports tournaments, blood donation campaigns and community service initiatives, alongside subsidized healthy meals. In a conglomerate as large and diverse as Sunway, it is the thread that connects people who might otherwise rarely cross paths.

The leadership: humility, on site

Humility is one of Sunway’s three core values, alongside Integrity and Excellence, and the Group treats it as a working requirement for its leaders.

Senior executives make regular visits to construction sites, hospitals, theme parks and hotels to speak with staff where they work, with informal coffee conversations as a standing fixture. The heavier investment goes into middle management, where culture lives day to day.

Sunway structures manager development across five career stages. LEAD: People Leadership trains managers to coach each individual toward their potential. Crucial Conversations builds the skill of navigating difficult discussions with candor and respect.

Once a year, the Sunway Leaders Conference brings leaders from across the Group’s 50-plus locations into one room to reaffirm its core values, align on best practices and recalibrate its business strategy.

The results: turnover down nearly ten points in four years

Those years were not quiet ones. They took in post-pandemic workforce churn, rapid organizational growth and one of the region’s most competitive talent markets. Turnover fell anyway.

The workforce holding those numbers up sits close to a 50:50 male-to-female split, a balance that carries through to board and senior leadership levels. It reflects Malaysia’s multicultural society too, with strong representation across the Malay, Chinese and Indian communities.

What’s next: confidence in AI, and the first 24 months

Sunway is candid about the culture tests it has set itself for the next two years. The main one being artificial intelligence. The Group is building AI awareness and literacy division by division, starting with senior leaders in dedicated talks and workshops before the effort cascades through the organisation.

For a company more than five decades in the making, positioning people at its core has never been limited to those on the payroll. It extends to the nation Sunway serves, the built communities it helps, and the generations it invests in. That long view is what has driven the Group’s growth for over 50 years, and it is what continues to shape how Sunway looks for better ways to improve, to give back, and to grow.

And as for candidates weighing where a career in Malaysia can go, Sunway Group now has 86% of its own people prepared to make the case.