Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

Local employers struggling to attract top talent: Survey

SINGAPORE — Employers in Singapore are grappling with challenges in attracting and retaining top talent, even as companies report an increase in hiring over the past year, according to advisory firm Willis Towers Watson.

TODAY file photo

TODAY file photo

SINGAPORE — Employers in Singapore are grappling with challenges in attracting and retaining top talent, even as companies report an increase in hiring over the past year, according to advisory firm Willis Towers Watson.

Two out of three Singapore employers said they struggle to attract talent, while at least one in four employers have issues retraining their own talent with critical skills. Despite this, labour-market activity has increased, with nearly half of all regional companies interviewed reporting that they have increased their hiring over the last year.

“Many of today’s most-sought-after specialities, such as cloud computing and mobile app design, did not exist over a decade ago,” said Maggy Fang, Willis Towers Watson managing director, Talent and Rewards – Asia Pacific.

“This disruption is causing a skilled-worker deficit in the Stem (Science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields and a surplus of low-skilled workers in others, such as administration and manufacturing,” she noted in a statement.

The Willis Towers Watson 2016 Global Talent Management and Rewards Survey interviewed more than 2,000 companies globally, including 695 from Asia.

Meanwhile, the Willis Towers Watson’s 2016 Global Workforce Study, which tapped 31,000 employees worldwide, of which more than one-third were from Asia, revealed a disconnect between employer and employee views in Singapore.

While employees in Singapore consider fair pay (61 per cent), opportunities to learn new skills (42 per cent) and job security (41 per cent) as their most important reasons to join a company, they also placed strong emphasis on the physical work environment, and healthcare and wellness benefits.

In contrast, employers did not consider job security, physical work environment, and healthcare and wellness benefits as important retention drivers. Employers do, however, acknowledge that base salary, career advancement opportunities and relationships with managers are important factors in retaining staff.

Despite the fact that supervision is one of the top engagement factors in Singapore, only 65 per cent of employees said their immediate manager or supervisor treats them with respect, and even fewer said that they help employees with career planning and decisions (38 per cent) or coach them to improve their performance (44 per cent).

The survey also found that only half of employees in Singapore feel their managers are effective at developing talent and leading change.

In a separate survey released on Wednesday by online job portal Monster, findings for February showed a 3 per cent growth in online hiring activity.

The information technology, telecom/Internet service provider and business process outsourcing/IT enabled services sectors registered the biggest jumps in online hiring activity, at 19 per cent year-on-year, as professionals in software, hardware and telecom jobs were in strong demand.

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.