Watch out Singapore as Malaysia’s ‘transforming’: hiring experts

Singapore will witness "stiff competition" from Malaysia for businesses if the Economic Development Board does not up its game, said a hiring expert.

Andrea Ross, managing director for professional recruitment consultancy Robert Walters for Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam, said, "Singapore has to be more innovative, which the EDB has been doing very well in. But it has got to revamp it up moving forward."

While Malaysia's infrastructure is not yet comparable to Singapore's, it will be in the near future and talents are open to migrating to the neighbouring country, she said during the presentation of the firm's annual global survey salary.

Sally Raj, country manager of Robert Walters Malaysia, said that the Singapore neighbour is currently undergoing a "transformation" to beef up its infrastructure. This could potentially see more companies beefing up workforce in the country.

That said, Joanne Chua, associate director of the firm's HR, supply chain and business support division, thinks that Singapore is "still very well-positioned as a market where talent is concerned."

Singapore still has investments pouring in, Chua said, adding, "So are we seeing a dearth in the jobs market? Definitely not. Are we seeing a slowdown? Yes, definitely. That's because companies are more cautious in terms of hiring."

The report highlighted that 2011 remained a generally conservative year for banks hiring, the firm said, as many firms "overhired" in the previous year. There, however, remained a strong demand for experienced professionals and support staff like sales and relationship managers, and credit analysts in small medium enterprises (SMEs) and corporate banking to generate revenue.

There was also an estimated up to 40 per cent increase in contractual positions offered in Singapore especially within finance, human resources and business support staff.

Singapore's economic outlook for the last year stood similar to that of Hong Kong's with dips in recruitment advertising activity — a similar seasonal decline in the last quarter of 2010.

According to the report, this year will see hiring slog on as global economic concerns will continue to "weigh on candidate and client confidence".

Ross optimistically pointed out that there are a number of public sector projects such as transport infrastructure, hospitals, schools and universities which will result in increasing demand for professionals within construction and logistics.

While Singapore has a strong talent pool, Ross warned that the next biggest challenge other than the rising inflation and housing prices is for firms to retain talent.

On the same note, Chua said, "Are we hearing retrenchments in certain areas? Yes, we are, not because companies are downsizing but because they're offshoring certain functions to lower-cost markets."

The consultancy firm said that the key operative for many organisations in 2012 is likely to be "cautious optimism". Assessing the global economic uncertainty will be a factor in headcount decisions.

The report revealed that job influx is likely to be seen in professions such as engineering, HR, secretarial support, IT and sales and marketing roles for professionals across the fast-moving consumer goods, IT and telecommunications and industrial sectors as these areas are less immediately affected by the uncertainty phenomenon as compared to banking and financial sectors.

Technical healthcare is predicted to see a growth in terms of constant labour demand.

Addressing the concern that inflation will curb real income increments, Chua said she does expect "adjustments" that firms will most likely make based on their yearly reviews.

Chua cautioned though the challenge for the government now remains managing that fine balance between the need to attract foreign investments into the local market and "providing jobs through our local talents" while being mindful that Singapore risk forcing foreign investors out if the country becomes a high cost centre.

"I think they're [the government] tacking the issues right now."

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