Building a social enterprise contact centre that lasts two decades requires treating inclusion as core operating infrastructure, not a side initiative, and proving it against the same commercial standards as any competitor. Connect Centre's own journey, from providing employment inside Changi Women's Prison in 2004 to receiving the Champion of Good award in July 2025, is a working case study in how that gets built and sustained, not just announced.
How Did Connect Centre's Inclusive Hiring Model Begin?
The story starts in 2004, when Connect Centre began operations by providing employment inside Changi Women's Prison, in partnership with the Singapore Prison Service. That was the founding decision, not a later addition: the company's earliest operating floor was built inside a correctional facility, employing women preparing for reintegration into the workforce.
Four years later, in 2008, the model expanded to male facilities, and in 2010 the company relocated its operations to the Singapore Prison Service Cluster B3 environment, deepening the partnership with Yellow Ribbon Singapore that continues today. In 2013, Connect Centre moved its headquarters to Henderson Road, where it still operates, alongside its Ubi Road office. Over that span, a small operating unit grew into a group spanning Singapore, Johor Bahru (since 2017), and Jakarta (since 2024), plus a fourth entity, WebCall Pte Ltd, established in 2018.
What Does "Building" Actually Mean Here?
It is tempting to describe programmes like this as if they were designed on a whiteboard and rolled out. The more honest description, based on how this kind of model actually survives 20 years, is that it gets built through repeated, unglamorous decisions made consistently over a long time.
Lesson One: Inclusion Has to Sit Inside Operations, Not Beside Them
A programme that lives in a CSR budget can be cut when budgets tighten. A workforce model that is load-bearing to the actual business cannot be, because cutting it means the business stops functioning. Connect Centre's approximately 180-seat call floor, delivering 24/7 coverage for clients including government agencies and major enterprises, runs with roughly 40% of its workforce being ex-offenders. That is not a statistic sitting next to the operation. It is the operation.
Lesson Two: Quality Standards Have to Match or Exceed Industry Norms
An inclusive workforce model earns durability by being commercially credible, not by being given leeway. Connect Centre holds ISO 9001:2015 (quality management), ISO 22301:2019 (business continuity), and ISO/IEC 27001:2022 (information security), along with the Data Protection Trustmark, bizSAFE Level 3, and Progressive Wage Mark certifications. It also holds a Singapore government financial grade of S8, reflecting turnover and tendering capacity of S$10 million. Those are the same credentials any large BPO competitor would need to serve clients like the Ministry of Home Affairs, CPF Board, or Land Transport Authority, all of which are among Connect Centre's real client base. The certifications and award history are documented in full on the awards page.
Lesson Three: The Workforce Model Has to Widen Over Time, Not Just Persist
Twenty years in, Connect Centre's inclusive hiring has extended beyond ex-offender employment to include people from low-income families, single mothers, and, through a partnership with SPD at Enabling Village, persons with disabilities. That widening reflects an important lesson: an inclusive hiring model that stays static risks becoming a fixed programme rather than a living part of company culture. Continuing to ask who else the business can responsibly employ is what keeps the model from calcifying.
Lesson Four: External Recognition Should Follow the Work, Not Lead It
Connect Centre operated for 21 years, reintegrating an estimated 1,000 ex-offenders into the workforce, before receiving the "Champion of Good" award from the Company of Good and the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) in July 2025, a recognition that holds through 2028. The company is also a registered social enterprise under the raiSE (raising Social Enterprise) Singapore framework. Both of these are meaningful, but they arrived after two decades of operating history, not before it. The lesson for any organisation building something similar is not to expect or chase recognition early. Build the operating model first; the recognition follows if the work is real.
What Have the Broader Numbers Shown Over This Period?
Connect Centre's own trajectory has run alongside a broader national shift in how Singapore approaches ex-offender employment. According to Workforce Singapore and Yellow Ribbon Singapore data, the number of employers supporting ex-offender hiring rose from 5,634 in 2021 to 6,265 in 2022 and 6,516 in 2023. Roughly 68% of ex-offenders secure employment within six months of release, based on a five-year average of CPF data, and in 2023, 94% of inmates referred to Yellow Ribbon Singapore secured a job prior to release.
Connect Centre did not wait for this ecosystem to mature before participating. It was operating inside Changi Women's Prison in 2004, well before Yellow Ribbon Singapore's employer network reached anywhere near its current scale. That earlier timing matters for understanding why the company's model looks the way it does: it was built through direct, hands-on partnership with the Singapore Prison Service before a broader national support infrastructure existed around it, and it adapted as that infrastructure grew.
What Role Did Geographic Growth Play in Sustaining the Model?
Connect Centre's expansion beyond Singapore is worth examining on its own, because it shows the inclusive hiring model was never treated as a constraint on growth. The group opened Connect Centre Sdn Bhd in Johor Bahru in 2017 and PT Connect Andalan in Indonesia in 2024, alongside the 2018 establishment of WebCall Pte Ltd. Each expansion added operating capacity and 24/7 coverage across the region, while the Singapore operation, anchored at Henderson Road since 2013, kept its inclusive hiring practice as a core part of the workforce rather than something confined to a single site.
That regional growth also meant the business had to prove its model could scale under genuine commercial pressure, competing for enterprise and government contracts against much larger BPO players, while still carrying a workforce structure most competitors do not attempt. The fact that the group reached a Singapore government financial grade of S8, reflecting tendering capacity of S$10 million, while sustaining that workforce composition, is itself a lesson: inclusive hiring and commercial scale are not in tension when the operating discipline is right.
What Would a New Organisation Learn From This Timeline?
A few patterns hold up across the 20-year arc that are worth naming directly for any organisation considering something similar.
- Start with a defined operating unit, not a company-wide mandate. Connect Centre began with a single facility and a single partnership, not a broad policy statement.
- Invest in the certifications a serious client base requires. Inclusion does not substitute for operational rigour; it has to be paired with it to win and retain enterprise and government clients.
- Expect the model to expand geographically and demographically if it works. What began as one prison partnership in Singapore became a three-country group and a workforce model covering multiple underrepresented groups.
- Measure success in employment outcomes, not sentiment. Around 1,000 people reintegrated into the workforce since 2004 is a concrete number that can be tracked, unlike a general commitment to "giving back."
The company's full journey, including its expansion across Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia and its current service lines, is laid out on the about us page, and the practical hiring infrastructure behind it, including its training approach, is covered on the training page.
For readers weighing whether this model would work in their own organisation, the companion article Why Hiring Ex-Offenders Makes Business Sense lays out the commercial reasoning in more depth.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did Connect Centre begin its inclusive hiring model?
Connect Centre began in 2004, providing employment inside Changi Women's Prison in partnership with the Singapore Prison Service. It expanded to male facilities in 2008 and has operated within the Singapore Prison Service Cluster B3 environment since 2010.
What proportion of Connect Centre's workforce are ex-offenders?
Approximately 40% of Connect Centre's workforce are ex-offenders, and the company estimates it has helped reintegrate around 1,000 ex-offenders into employment since 2004.
What award did Connect Centre receive for its social enterprise work?
Connect Centre received the "Champion of Good" award from the Company of Good and the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) in July 2025, a recognition that holds through 2028. The company is also a registered social enterprise under Singapore's raiSE framework.
Does Connect Centre only employ ex-offenders, or does its inclusive hiring go further?
Connect Centre's inclusive hiring extends beyond ex-offenders to include people from low-income families and single mothers, and, through a partnership with SPD at Enabling Village, persons with disabilities.
How has Connect Centre balanced its social enterprise model with serving major corporate and government clients?
By holding the same certifications any large-scale contact centre operator would need, including ISO 9001, ISO 22301, and ISO/IEC 27001, alongside a Singapore government financial grade of S8. This has allowed the company to serve clients including the Singapore Prison Service, CPF Board, Land Transport Authority, and major insurers, while sustaining an inclusive workforce model, as outlined on the solutions page.
If you would like to learn more about how this model works in practice, or discuss a partnership, reach out to Connect Centre through the contact us page.