Source: The Straits Times

Hiring outlook most positive in almost 11 years

Employers reported a net employment outlook of 25 percent, an increase of 11 percentage points from the outlook for the 1st quarter of this year, according to a survey of more than 500 employers. This is the highest net employment outlook, defined as the percentage of companies surveyed that intend to hire new staff minus the percentage that intends to downsize since 2011, quarter four. Companies in the IT, technology, communications, telecommunications, and media sector reported the strongest employment outlook at 38 percent, followed by the manufacturing, banking, finance, insurance, and real estate sectors (26 percent) and the construction industry at 24 percent. Manufacturing, retail, and IT sectors are planning or have given the most generous average increments, with more than 8 in 10 manufacturing companies intending to give an average increment of 3 percent or more. Finance, wholesale, and retail trade sectors are expected to give the largest bonuses on average, with 1 in 2 employers in the finance industry giving an average bonus of more than a month to staff.

However, a lack of skilled and qualified workers despite a rise in employment last quarter could temper the positive outlook as more than 25 percent of job vacancies have been left unfilled for more than 6 months. Granting of employment visas also poses a challenge to hiring firms.

Improving employee retention

While the great resignation wave has not impacted Singapore greatly, companies should look to increase employee engagement and retention in the current climate where there remains a dearth of skilled and qualified workers.

As reported by Singapore Business Review, here are 4 tips on how to increase talent retention:

1. Find out employees’ sentiments and intentions to leave before they do. This can be done easily through regular pulse surveys and continuous listening.

2. Strategise and intervene to increase employee retention. Organisations need to make sure that their strategy goes beyond just asking employees about their intention to leave. Encourage two-way communication without compromising employees' confidentiality to explore potential reasons that may have influenced their decision.

3. Analyse to find out drivers of retention/attrition. After collecting employee feedback, managers and HR can work closely together to analyse which factors are most critical to influencing their retention.

4. Empower managers to take relevant follow-up actions based on the drivers. Share best practice action with real-time tracking of action/ROI. For example, if growth is found to impact employees’ intent to stay, then managers can help carve out time on employees’ calendars for self-development or training.

Transforming businesses to be less reliant on labour and energy

As highlighted by Finance Minister Lawrence Wong on Mar 22, business processes need to transform to become less reliant on labour and be more energy-efficient as labour and carbon constraints are likely to be permanent in the future. Many schemes and initiatives have been put in place to help businesses with transformation on these fronts although the take-up rate is usually lower than budgeted. With the potential mismatches of skills, emphasis on skills upgrading and training is even more important.

What do you think of the positive hiring outlook this year? How can your business transform to increase employee retention and at the same time reducing reliance on energy and labour?