If you look closely at the Westlite logo, you will see the word 人, and that’s because we really believe in treating our construction workers as humans. With respect and dignity, because of how much they have contributed to our economy.

Whilst the FEDA requirement is one activity every quarter, we have 3-4 every week. Because we really believe in them being part of the community.

I was struck by this intent, because it wasn’t that case when I visited another dormitory in July 2022, as part of a Stacked Homes article I did to help people understand why their BTOs and renovations were taking so long.

In that article, I became a construction worker for a day, following a scaffolding company over 24 hours, even living in the supervisor’s quarters beside the dorm, to understand what life was like for them.

As you can see from the above, the other dorm was drab, dull, and nothing like the bright, cozy environment I saw in Centurion.

What was amazing was Centurion’s attention to detail. See those holes in the bed frame? They are for hanging your hangers and clothes.

Recognising that people had different sleeping times, with some still wanting to talk to their family, Centurion even designed a privacy corner for them.

Of course, the air-conditioned gym, the recreation area, are just great touches.

But did it make financial sense for Centurion to do this, given that it would be more expensive?

Applying the concept of student resi life, in a work dorm?

It seemed counterintuitive. After all, you could stuff more beds into those recreational areas, and maximise the revenue per square feet.

Nor did one need to spend extra money hiring a resi life manager, which Centurion touted as the only dorm operator who had one in every dorm. To me, this was interesting. You’d be more accustomed seeing a resi life manager in a student accommodation, rather than a workers dormitory.

Were they spending too much money on nice to haves?

Well, looking at Centurion’s numbers, it looks like this strategy of making spaces enjoyable, is working. They reported that 70-80 percent of current employers rebook dorm spaces for their workers.

But it goes back to a simple principle. Treat your people right, and they would work hard, and you’d get more happiness at work, and it becomes a virtuous cycle.

How to keep turning the flywheel

But in land limited Singapore, how would Centurion continue this flywheel effect? Centurion CEO Mr Kong Chee Min shared that they were looking at asset enhancement to grow the number of beds. Whilst we were there, the constant drilling and bumps in the ground reminded us that just beside us, the Ubi dorm was being upgraded to become larger.

And in the different dorms they now operated, planning permissions were being sought to grow the number of beds.

When I asked Kong about what their pipeline looked like, he shared that they were being moderate with their bids, and not overbidding for new sites.

This seemed prudent, especially when they now had a greater debt headroom with the funds from the IPO. Yet they were not excessively competing with other operators. Instead, they were focused on running their dorms well, and increasing the capacity there.

Then I cheekily asked if there was the intent to acquire the smaller operators, or if there was a minimum number of beds they looked for. Kong was non-committal about this, sharing that they were still focused on building up capacity in their existing spaces.

Kong also shared some history, saying that when they first entered the worker dorm segment, few expected them to make much money from it. After all, there were few operators that seemed big enough to scale. But as the demand for standards rose, better dorm operators had a distinctive edge.

Now, they were at a point where they were fully compliant. They also saw the same situation happening in Malaysia, where the government was imposing stricter rules.

Would that then lead them to explore other markets?

I was curious, and asked if they would have done those key worker contracts in Singapore, seeing that they did the same for the Australian mining operations recently. Kong shared that they had also bid for the nursing accommodation contract that MOHH had put out.

But they had not won it. In the meantime, it was back to other avenues.

The build to rent area was something they hoped would grow in the near future, but rental rates were not to their expectations yet.

Not just cycling through more workers for the RevPar

As we left that evening, I felt abit more hopeful that people at Centurion actually cared for these foreign workers. It was easy to dismiss them as a transient workforce, here to stay for a bit, extracting as much work out of them, before turning them back to their hometowns in Dhaka, Bangalore, older, bruised, and wearied; and then taking the next younger, better batch of workers.

But Kathy shared that afternoon about how they saw these workers as not just mere workers, but as active parts of the community. Most recently, these workers had volunteered to help at the rental HDB flats of local Singaporeans, painting, and cleaning it on their days off.

They were humans, as much as we were, and for the first time in a long while, I saw a company that didn’t just see people as more dollar signs, here today, gone tomorrow, and earning the spread between their transience.