Evolving recruitment strategies across Singapore
With ASEAN poised to become one of the fastest growing regions globally, Singapore today remains one of the most technologically advanced and developed markets in the region. But with other maturing economies like Indonesia, Thailand, and even Vietnam in recent years, slowly becoming an attractive talent destination, Singapore has begun feeling the growing talent competitiveness in the region.
Therefore, it comes as a little surprise that out of all the ASEAN member countries, Singapore remains most talent competitive. Being a small nation and having better access to developed markets of the west, Singapore has traditionally enjoyed a fast-growing economy. This coupled with the rising adoption of new-age technologies like digitalization and AI-driven automation, the economy has undergone significant changes in the last couple of years. As the demand for skills and candidate preferences evolve, today the country finds itself facing a digital talent gap while job opportunities seem to keep growing. It is this key challenge that TA professionals across Singapore have to find a way around when it comes to meet their company’s growing digital and technology related needs.
Rise of collaborative work and flexible hours
The rising scope of collaborative work, often on a contractual basis, is slowly becoming a preferred option for many companies in the wake of changing economic realities. One option is to tilt their workforce composition towards having more contractors who can help strategize or execute short term projects to achieving immediate objectives. In addition, many will soon have to look at how digital technologies can be effectively deployed to help the country push for more collaborative work.
Companies are progressively conscious of the importance candidates place on flexible hours as a key benefit. As such, they are taking full advantage of technologies that enable flexible hours or work-from-home schemes to attract new joiners and retain employees. In a survey, conducted by leading recruitment experts, Hays has uncovered that 44 percent of organizations in Singapore actively promote flexible and agile working as the default position of their business cultures and support it overtly, as opposed to the 33 percent of respondents that said otherwise.
By investing in the right tools that will encourage collaboration and a flexible workforce, companies are essentially building the foundation for work-life balance and personal development to take place. Collaborative technology not only enables employees to have more autonomy at work, but it has also proven to increase staff’s creativity and productivity as they would need to find ways to work remotely, yet deliver the same or better quality of work. Having the right digital solutions that enable flexible work also allow employees to reach out to experts within the organization and easily track their progress through project-sharing tools.
Providing the right development opportunities
An important hiring trend to enter in recent years, one that has made many Singapore-based companies invest heavily in skill-building opportunities, is the prevalent need among many to reskill. With the adoption of new age technologies, it becomes necessary to retain key talent and keep them trained. While the focus on hiring the right people is not to go down anytime soon, companies are beginning to actively look at retention and training methodologies to upskill their current staff. This means many are willing to try out new and innovative approaches to talent recruitment and management.
Making HR more efficient
A key shift in how hiring is to evolve within Singapore-based companies is how many are evolving internally. With technology like digital platforms already revolutionizing how HR professionals operate, many companies have begun investing in AI and machine learning technologies to make hiring efforts more efficient. AI today is allowing HR and recruitment teams to screen massive amounts of applications in order to quickly find the perfect profiles. Many are implementing machine learning programs that help identify company fit by going through candidates social and online behaviors. With a growing need to find the right talent fit for the company, many organizations are implementing AI driven tests at the initial stages of the interview process to assess if a candidate aligns with their way of doing business, values and belief system.
The way forward
With Singapore experiencing a talent shortage when it came to hiring primarily for tech-related roles, hiring the best people in specific domain became the priority for companies across the board. As to do this, compensation models had traditionally been deployed on a large scale. Using flexible compensation and benefits models to attract the best talent, companies were spending large to hire professionals. High salaries, attractive bonuses, and even higher counter offers had become a norm of the job market in the nation. But with newer competition rising and talent gap still remaining high in the region, hiring the right people is only to become all the more challenging.
It is precisely why talent leaders in the country should gear up for the future of TA and concentrate on building an appealing employer brand. Creating a strong employer brand that attracts the right kind of talent can go a long way in nullifying the challenges of employee engagement and retention. When someone joins an organization because they believe in what the brand stands for and understand that their work has a purpose, it takes the entire organization to a higher level of productivity.