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At GlobalFoundries Singapore, the employee experience is shaped through every well-designed moment, from bite-sized learning and sincere recognition to platforms that help employees take charge of their growth at work.
GlobalFoundries (GF) manufactures semiconductors used in everyday technologies that support how people live, work and connect. But beyond technology, it’s the people behind the process who make development possible.
When it comes to employee experience, GF defines it as the cumulation of meaningful, well-designed moments that help employees do their best work and grow. This experience is anchored in its employee value proposition, 'Shape what’s essential', which is built on three core pillars: performance & growth, culture, and rewards & wellbeing.
At the Employee Experience Awards 2025, Singapore, GF was recognised for bringing this vision to life in powerful ways. In addition to being crowned the coveted Employee Experience Champion of the Year, the company took home multiple awards:
Gold:
- Best Skilling Strategy
- Best Capability Development Programme for the HR Team
- Best Diversity and Inclusion Strategy
- Best Learning and Development Programme
- Best Holistic Leadership Development Strategy
Silver:
- Best First-Time Manager Programme
- Best Employee Engagement Initiative
- Best HR Communication Strategy
Bronze:
- Best Soft Skills Training Programme
- Best In-House Certification Programme
- Best Recruitment Referral System
- Best Onboarding Experience
Overall:
- Overall Leadership Award
In this interview, Roy Chew, Director of Talent Management at GlobalFoundries Singapore, shares how the company is building a future-ready workforce — by listening closely, acting intentionally, and giving every employee the support to thrive.
Q How does your team define "employee experience", and what aspects do you prioritise most?
At GlobalFoundries (GF), we define employee experience (EX) as the cumulation of meaningful, well-designed moments that enable our people to do their best work and grow. Our employee value proposition, 'Shape what’s essential', is grounded in three key pillars: Performance & growth, culture, and rewards & wellbeing.
While culture, rewards and wellbeing continue to be ongoing priorities at GF, performance is an area we’ve deepened our focus in 2025. Through improving hiring quality, accelerating onboarding, and scaling development through platforms such as LinkedIn Learning, we ensure that we chart a holistic growth pathway for every employee to succeed. Very soon, we will be launching new Skills Cloud and Talent Scorecard initiatives as part of our roadmap to help our workforce become future-ready.
We believe that any good EX strategy should be shaped by the expectations and needs of our people. Through regular feedback channels such as our ONEGF employee surveys, pulse surveys and site-level engagement, we have refreshed various flexi-benefits, introduced enhanced annual incentives, and are continuously reviewing our salary packages to ensure fairness, market competitiveness and transparency. These initiatives are all hosted on our newly launched Employee Centre, serving as a one-stop portal for visibility on well-being and development needs.
Q Can you walk us through your most high-impact EX initiative that led to your success at the awards this year? What business need did it solve, and how was success measured?
The EX initiative that delivered the biggest impact to our workforce this year was how we built and scaled a skills-driven ecosystem where learning directly enables performance. Under this approach, we provide all employees, including new joiners, access to bite-sized, gamified learning modules that unlock curated learning paths tied to their roles. We set up a Skills Cloud – a data-led approach to identifying, growing, and matching capabilities that each individual employee will need in their roles. We also started using talent analytics to improve hiring and internal mobility decisions. For early-career talent, we offer structured and curated leadership development programmes to support fresh graduates and young professionals as they grow in their roles at GF.
Beyond GF, we collaborated with various Institutes of Higher Learning in Singapore, extending access to technical training, professional certifications and even sponsorship programmes for those pursuing further studies. These initiatives provide the incentive and opportunity for employees to upskill, reskill and cross-skill, which are critical for future-readiness as our industry continues to evolve.
Our ecosystem is designed to empower our employees to take charge of their growth, while reinforcing the skills our business needs to power industries now and for the future.
Q How do you balance personalised employee needs with scalable EX programmes?
We use a 'global backbone, local delivery' approach to balance personalisation with scalability in our EX programmes. Digital platforms such as Workday, LinkedIn Learning, and our new Employee Centre provide consistent, scalable infrastructure on a global level – from onboarding to development and benefits access. On the ground, our various HR units, together with HR Business Partners, localise these experiences through close engagement with employees. In Singapore, our site-based team-building events, for example, reflect the region’s voice while aligning with our global culture agenda. As we fully roll out future enablers such as Skills Cloud and the Talent Scorecard, it is also important to ensure that pilots are grounded in real user insights and feedback.
We also place significant emphasis on leadership development. We continually review our leadership programmes to support all levels, from first-time supervisors to senior leaders. This ensures the content remains practical, relevant and aligned to evolving team needs. Personalisation isn’t about creating silos – it’s about delivering what people need, when they need it, within a system that operates effectively at both global and local levels.
Q What are some underappreciated drivers of employee engagement that you think deserve more attention?
Driving employee engagement doesn’t always entail big-bet ideas that come from the top – I believe that small, intentional actions that emerge organically within teams can also serve to drive employee engagement from the ground up. Here are some examples I’ve seen at GF:
Timely and sincere recognition: Our internal social platform provides a space for employees to celebrate one another’s contributions, building everyday positivity.
Purposeful story-telling: We regularly highlight the impact of what we do, powering technologies that enable a better and safer world. This helps teams see their purpose at work.
Manager enablement: Bite-sized leadership sprints and curated learning for people leaders at every level help build them to build key skills like confidence, empathy and trust.
These everyday actions might seem small but can go a long way in building loyalty, pride and momentum.
Q Finally, what is the most important message that you'd like to share with your team as you plan ahead?
Every award and effort are a tribute to the collective effort behind every programme, pulse and idea. As we continue to listen, test, build, and optimise, I am truly excited about what the future will bring at GF. Building a strong employee experience is not the sole responsibility of the HR function – every employee has a part in co-creating the experience they want and desire.
Read more interviews on why organisations have won trophies for their HR practices - head over to our Winning Secrets section!
Photos: Provided
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