Employers across the Asia Pacific region expect significant upskilling will be required by a large share of the global workforce over the 2018-2022 period, as per the recent 2019 Robert Half Salary Guide.

The report noted that 84% of Singaporean CFOs and CIOs say it will be more challenging to find qualified professionals in the coming five years.

Also, 86% of CFOs in 2019 have already or are planning to implement AI (artificial intelligence) programs within their organization. These ongoing digitization, automation, and AI initiatives are having a major impact on traditional job roles in the finance sector, particularly for accountants as companies navigate the era of cloud-based accounting.

While AI is expected to boost GDP for local economies by up to 26% by 2030, finance leaders in Singapore agree that positive strides towards increased automation and a more AI-assisted future are helping finance and accounting professionals to increasingly move away from task-based roles, to focus more on processing and generating information that is critical for corporate decisions and financial reporting.

Here are other key highlights from the report-

• The stigma around job hopping is slowly dying. While Singaporean CFOs consider a jobseeker who has made an average of four job changes over a 10-year period to be a job-

hopper, more than half (56%) confirm they would be willing to hire a candidate who has a history of job-hopping.

• 80% of CFOs say it is challenging to find skilled financial services talent.

• Singaporean employers are fast realizing the rewards of flexible staffing arrangements, especially in the digital age. Three-quarters (76%) of CFOs within financial services say hiring an experienced interim/contract professional would help in their digital transformation efforts, while 79% say having a combination between permanent, interim and temporary employees is most successful to implement digital transformation initiatives within their organization.

• As awareness of these cyber-security threats continues to rise throughout 2019 alongside the introduction of new regulatory processes to combat these threats, there is a growing trend towards enhancing the ‘cyber-hygiene’ within Singapore’s financial services institutions. This has resulted in greater demand in the fields of cyber-security, technology risk and RegTech (Regulatory Technology) to comply with regulations and safeguard organizations against external risks. Indeed, according to LinkedIn, cyber-security specialists are one of the top five emerging jobs in Singapore across all industries.

• Top IT skills CIOs are looking to develop fall in IT security, Data analytics, Business analytics, Business intelligence and IT management.

• 87% of CIOs say it is more challenging to source qualified IT professionals compared to five years ago, and as a result, current market conditions are placing mounting pressure on companies to offer higher salaries to attract in-demand and scarce IT professionals.