Great Place to Work ranks Hilton first among large employers in Asia as the hotel group marks a decade of regional workplace recognition and continued expansion
Hilton has been ranked No. 1 among large employers on Great Place to Work’s 2026 Best Workplaces in Asia list as its Asia-Pacific workforce grows to more than 99,000 team members.
- Hilton ranks No. 1 in the large-company category on Great Place to Work’s 2026 Best Workplaces in Asia list.
- Hilton says its Asia-Pacific workforce has grown from about 48,000 team members in 2017 to more than 99,000 in 2026 across more than 1,300 hotels.
- The 2026 result marks Hilton’s 10th consecutive year on the Asia list and its second consecutive year in the top position, according to the company.
- Great Place to Work says the 2026 Asia rankings draw on more than 3.8 million employee responses representing 8.9 million workers across the region.
(NEWS) SINGAPORE, Singapore, 2026-Sep-11 — /Travel PR News/ — Hilton has taken the top position in the large-company category of the Great Place to Work 2026 Best Workplaces in Asia ranking, giving the hotel group another high-profile employer accolade at a time when its workforce and property network are expanding rapidly across Asia Pacific.
The independent workplace organisation’s 2026 Best Workplaces in Asia list places Hilton first among large employers, ahead of Marriott International in second place, Cisco in third and Intercontinental Hotels Group in sixth. Great Place to Work says the ranking is based on more than 3.8 million confidential employee responses representing the workplace experiences of about 8.9 million people across Asia and the Middle East.
For Hilton, the result also extends a longer run of workplace recognition. In its announcement of the 2026 result, the company said this is its 10th consecutive year on the Asia list and its second year running in the No. 1 position. Hilton also describes itself as the region’s top-ranked hospitality employer for the past decade.
Workforce growth changes the scale of Hilton’s people strategy
The significance of the ranking is amplified by the size of Hilton’s regional expansion. The company says more than 99,000 team members now work across a network of more than 1,300 hotels in Asia Pacific, compared with approximately 48,000 employees in 2017. That means the workforce has more than doubled over the period in which Hilton has been appearing on the regional workplace list.
For a hotel company, that growth creates a human-resources challenge that extends well beyond hiring. New openings require general managers, department heads, culinary teams, front-office staff, engineers, sales teams and a wide range of operational roles, while existing employees need clearer routes to move between brands, properties and markets as the network becomes larger.
Hilton says it has responded by investing in leadership and career-development programmes including SHINE, its general-manager development initiative, the Luxury Leaders Program, Women in Leadership and a range of early-talent programmes. The company also points to internal mobility as a central part of its regional talent strategy.
Alan Watts, president of Asia Pacific at Hilton, said the recognition reflects the way the company supports career growth and a sense of belonging while continuing to expand. Hilton’s workforce growth, he said, makes maintaining that culture increasingly important as the company enters more communities and destinations.
Technology and flexible work enter the hotel employment mix
Hilton’s workplace strategy is also evolving alongside changes in how hotels recruit and schedule employees. According to the company, gig-work programmes have been introduced in Greater China and Japan, while AI-supported scheduling and automation are being used to reduce routine administrative work and give operational teams more time for guest-facing activity.
Those initiatives illustrate a wider shift in hotel employment, where labour availability, employee expectations and technology are changing how operators organise frontline work. Hilton says it is also using recruitment technology to handle hiring at greater scale while trying to maintain a more personal candidate experience.
Its employee proposition extends beyond career development. The group’s Thrive@Hilton platform includes wellbeing support, coaching and counselling, while Hilton says some markets provide additional benefits for employees and their families. The company also operates recognition initiatives such as Thrive Sabbatical and MyStay@Hilton.
Patsy Ng, senior vice president for human resources in Asia Pacific at Hilton, said the company’s priority is to maintain support and career pathways as its workforce expands into new markets.
Employee feedback sits at the centre of the ranking
Great Place to Work’s methodology gives the 2026 result additional context. The organisation says its Trust Index survey asks employees about leadership, respect, fairness, pride, colleagues and the meaning they find in their work. Companies must first qualify through national workplace lists before being considered for the regional Asia ranking.
For the 2026 list, Great Place to Work separates large employers from small and medium-sized organisations. Hilton appears at No. 1 in the large-company category, while several other hospitality businesses also feature prominently, underscoring the sector’s competition for talent as hotel development continues across the region.
The organisation says only employee survey data can secure a place on the list, although additional information about workplace programmes may be considered for context. It also requires minimum response thresholds designed to make the survey results representative of each participating workforce.
Hilton’s 2026 recognition follows workplace wins cited by the company across markets including China, India, the Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia and New Zealand, with further hospitality-employer recognition in Australia, Indonesia and Singapore. The company also says it was named Best Workplace for Women in Japan for the first time.
As Hilton continues to add hotels and employees across Asia Pacific, the more consequential test will be whether the workplace practices recognised at the regional level can remain consistent across an increasingly large and diverse network. The 2026 ranking suggests that, at least in the employee feedback measured by Great Place to Work, Hilton is currently maintaining that position while scaling.
