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"Employee experience should not peak during onboarding," says Zacharias Rajagopal, Director, People, MODEC Malaysia, adding that it is built through intentional, human moments that demonstrate to employees from the beginning that they belong here.
Having grown from a standing start to more than 600 employees in just 18 months, MODEC Malaysia faced a defining people challenge: how to build a high-growth organisation without losing the human connection that helps employees feel supported, confident and part of the team.
The answer, the organisation found, did not lie in a single flagship programme. It lay in rethinking onboarding as the first in-person chapter of every employee’s MODEC story – one shaped not only by processes, policies, and operational readiness, but by the welcome they receive, the guidance they are given, and the everyday interactions that show they matter.
Bringing that experience to life required shared ownership. While HR could design the journey, leaders, managers and colleagues were essential in making it real – turning a necessary administrative process into an opportunity to build trust, cultural understanding and a genuine sense of belonging.
The approach earned MODEC Malaysia and Singapore’s People Department a bronze award for 'Best Onboarding Experience' at the Employee Experience Awards 2026. But for the team, the recognition is not an endpoint. It is encouragement to keep listening, adapting and connecting the employee journey – from onboarding and wellbeing to learning, career growth and the opportunity to build a future with the organisation.
In conversation with HRO, Zacharias Rajagopal, Director, People, MODEC Malaysia, shares the lessons behind building employee experience at speed, why empathy is essential to resilient EX programmes, and how organisations can ensure the promise of a warm welcome continues well beyond day one.
Q Tell us about the biggest insight or lesson that influenced your EX approach this past year.
MODEC Malaysia scaled at extraordinary speed. Our challenge was not simply onboarding people; it was creating connection, belonging, and organisational confidence while growing an organisation at pace.
Expanding from a standing start to over 600 employees within 18 months taught us one powerful lesson: employee experience is shaped long before a process is completed or a policy explained. It is shaped by how people feel during the moments that matter. For us, onboarding is one of those defining moments.
When organisations grow fast, it is easy to prioritise efficiency, documentation, and operational readiness. While these are essential, we learned that the smallest human interactions can have the greatest impact – a warm welcome, clear guidance, timely support and simply ensuring that a new colleague does not feel lost.
Our key insight was that great employee experience is not created through a single major initiative. It is built through intentional, human moments that demonstrate to employees from the beginning that they belong here.
Q How did you bring leaders, managers, and employees together to support the execution and success of the initiative?
At MODEC, we believe culture is built through everyday moments – how we welcome people, how we support one another, and how we make people feel they belong.
Our leaders provided the support and encouragement to continuously strengthen employee experience, while managers and colleagues played an equally important role in bringing the experience to life. HR could design the journey, but the real experience is created through every interaction a new employee has with the organisation.
Therefore, we focused on creating greater awareness that onboarding is the first in-person chapter of an employee's story at MODEC.
"When leaders, managers, and teams collectively take ownership of that first chapter, onboarding becomes more than an administrative process. It creates connection, strengthens cultural understanding, and gives new colleagues the confidence that they have joined a team that genuinely wants them to succeed."
Q What challenge behind the scenes tested your team the most, and what did it teach you about building stronger employee experience programmes?
The greatest challenge was the pace of growth.
Within a relatively short period, we were building people capabilities while simultaneously supporting significant workforce expansion in Malaysia.
Whilst MODEC has a strong and established global presence in markets such as Singapore, China, India, Brazil, and Japan, our Kuala Lumpur organisation was developing rapidly and operating in a highly dynamic environment.
Priorities evolved, hiring volumes increased and our team had to continuously adapt while ensuring that the employee experience remained personal and consistent. It taught us that strong EX programmes cannot be rigid. They need to be resilient, responsive and deeply anchored in empathy.
Our greatest lesson was internal: to create a positive experience for employees, the team delivering that experience must also support one another. The strength of our People team became an important part of our ability to deliver for others.
Q As you reflect on the journey, what does this recognition at the Employee Experience Awards 2026 mean to you and your team?
Winning Bronze at the Employee Experience Awards 2026 is an incredibly proud milestone for the People Department in MODEC Malaysia and Singapore. As Koji Kawabe, our Vice President, Corporate, Floating Production Solutions Business Unit of MODEC said: “This recognition reflects our dedication to building an environment where people can grow, contribute, and succeed together.”
This recognition validates the dedication, and heart that went into building our Kuala Lumpur office from the ground up. It belongs to every single person who played a part in welcoming our 600+ new colleagues, and reminds us that our collective efforts have fostered a vibrant community where every employee is empowered to thrive and drive our shared vision forward.
We are proud of what we have achieved, but we also see this recognition as an encouragement to continue challenging ourselves.
Employee experience is never 'complete'. There will always be an opportunity to listen better, care more deeply and create an even better workplace for our people.
Q Finally, as employee expectations continue to evolve, what is one area of EX you believe HR teams will need to rethink in the year ahead?
Many organisations invest significant effort in creating a positive first impression. The greater challenge is ensuring that the same sense of connection, clarity and possibility continues six months, two years or even five years into an employee's journey.
Employee experience should not peak during onboarding. The future of EX will require HR to connect the different moments of an employee's journey more intentionally – onboarding, wellbeing, manager interactions, career conversations, learning and development, and opportunities to contribute.
Genuine care also means investing in people's future. Employees increasingly want to know not only what they can contribute today, but who they can become tomorrow.
Our aspiration is therefore to connect the warmth of onboarding with meaningful growth, continuous learning and holistic wellbeing. Ultimately, great employee experience should consistently remind people of three things: I matter, I am growing, and I can see a future here.
Read more interviews on why organisations have won trophies for their HR practices - head over to our Winning Secrets section!
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