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Khaleej Times Best Places to Work 2025 Winners announced
Middle East’s leading employers recognised for setting new benchmarks in workplace happiness, culture and employee engagement
- PUBLISHED: Tue 20 Jan 2026, 9:55 AM
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The Khaleej Times is delighted to announce the winners of the Khaleej Times Best Places to Work 2025, celebrating organisations across the Middle East that are setting the standard for exceptional workplace culture and employee wellbeing.
Powered by global employee experience experts WorkL, the 2025 awards recorded unprecedented participation from leading employers across the region. The organisations recognised have demonstrated a strong commitment to creating environments where employees can thrive through initiatives focused on wellbeing, diversity and inclusion, empowerment, and collaboration.
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This dedicated supplement showcases all the winning organisations, each of which now stands to benefit from stronger retention, enhanced recruitment appeal, and improved commercial performance.
To qualify as a Best Place to Work, organisations were required to score 70% or higher in average employee happiness, alongside minimum participation thresholds, across WorkL’s six core Workplace Happiness drivers:
Reward and Recognition
Information Sharing
Empowerment
Instilling Pride
Job Satisfaction
Wellbeing
Importantly, these dimensions cannot be traded off against one another. In highly engaged workplaces, all six drivers are rated positively by employees, even if strengths vary across areas.
In addition to powering the awards, WorkL maintains the world’s largest employee sentiment database, capturing feedback from employees across 120,000 organisations globally, including 5,000 in the UAE. Data from the UAE indicates a strong and consistently positive employee experience. Job Satisfaction leads at 80%, reflecting high levels of fulfilment and role satisfaction. Engagement, Empowerment, and Information Sharing each score 78%, pointing to trusted, well-connected workplaces with strong communication and autonomy. Instilling Pride (79%) highlights a deep sense of belonging, while Wellbeing (76%) remains solid, with scope for continued focus.
Employee sentiment in 2025 remains robust, with steady improvements across key areas. Reward and Recognition increased from 76% to 77%, while Wellbeing rose from 75% to 76%, reflecting growing emphasis on appreciation and employee care. Engagement, Empowerment, and Instilling Pride continue to hold strong at around 78%, while Job Satisfaction remains the highest-scoring driver at 80%. Overall, the results point to a stable, motivated, and engaged workforce.
Notably, Best Places to Work organisations consistently outperform the wider UAE benchmark by an average of 10%. These employers excel across multiple dimensions — from flexible working and fair pay to career development opportunities, health support, and a strong focus on diversity and inclusion. What unites them is a shared commitment to continuously improving the employee experience, delivering tangible business benefits. Higher employee engagement is closely linked to lower absenteeism, reduced staff turnover, and higher productivity, saving organisations both time and cost.
Among the 100 organisations recognised, each has excelled in a distinct area. Category winners include small, medium, large, and very large organisations, as well as awards for Wellbeing, Younger Workers, and Older Workers.
"Congratulations to the winners of the Khaleej Times Best Places to Work," said Lord Mark Price, founder of WorkL. "WorkL is very proud to power these prestigious awards, recognising the best places to work in the Middle East. These organisations have happier, more engaged employees and are reaping the benefits. I wish them every success in their future endeavours."
Discover the full list of winners here: https://epaper.khaleejtimes.com/supplements-best-places-to-work-in-the-uae/20260120
