Islamabad-based IT services company DPL, which has its office in the I-8 Markaz of the federal capital, has been ranked among the top 25 companies in the 2026 Top 100 Global Most Loved Workplaces list, securing the 22nd position in the annual ranking prepared by the Best Practice Institute. The achievement marks a dramatic improvement from DPL’s debut on the list the previous year, when the company entered at 92nd position as the first Pakistani firm ever to be recognised on the global ranking, climbing 70 places in a single year to enter the top 25 globally.
The 2026 ranking is based on independent surveys involving more than 2.8 million employees across over 20 industries, with the list examining how employers engage workers, respond to feedback, build trust, and retain talent. DPL, established in 2003, is one of the leading software development and IT companies operating globally, serving customers across Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas from its Islamabad headquarters, with regional offices in Miami and Riyadh. The company has been recognised as a pioneer in Agile practices and innovation culture in Pakistan, with a flat organisational structure and holacratic approach designed to encourage employee ownership and innovation.
According to the report accompanying the ranking, competitive salaries, flexible working arrangements, and modern benefits are no longer sufficient to retain employees on their own. A 2026 WorldatWork report found that nearly 70 percent of employees were satisfied with their pay and 77 percent were satisfied with their overall benefits, yet 75 percent were still actively looking for opportunities outside their organisations, underscoring a disconnect between conventional compensation satisfaction and genuine employee retention. The report found that leading workplaces distinguish themselves by investing in skills that remain useful to employees both inside and outside the company, acting on employee feedback, linking organisational values with performance, and treating the flow of information transparently rather than top-down.
DPL’s continued rise on this global benchmark carries significance well beyond a single company’s recognition. For Pakistan’s broader information technology sector, which is competing globally not just for client contracts but for skilled talent against companies in markets offering significantly higher compensation, a Pakistani firm climbing into the top 25 of a rigorous, internationally benchmarked workplace culture index demonstrates that competitive employee experience is achievable from a Pakistani base. As the country’s IT exports approach a record $4.5 billion this fiscal year and the sector increasingly competes for the same skilled engineers being courted by international remote employers, DPL’s ranking offers a concrete reference point for what world-class workplace culture built in Pakistan can look like, and a potential talent retention model for other firms in the sector to study as the war for technical talent intensifies both domestically and globally.
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