A recruiter diary

Moving to Singapore? Some useful links

2011-09-29T11:17:00.004+08:00

Useful information for those moving to Singapore:

General - http://www.contactsingapore.sg/
Tourism - http://www.yoursingapore.com/
Cuisine - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuisine_of_Singapore
Overview booklet - http://view.vcab.com/?vcabid=geaSeapnpSceaepe
Workshop for people moving to Singapore - http://www.singbound.sg/
Singapore Custom Regulations - http://www.customs.gov.sg/ and http://singapore.shipping-international.com/customs/
Work VISA - http://www.mom.gov.sg/
Education - and http://www.moe.gov.sg/education/admissions/international-students/general-info/ and http://view.vcab.com/?vcabid=geaSeapnpScnhnhr
Phone Directory - http://www.yellowpages.com.sg/
Road Directory - http://www.streetdirectory.com.sg/

Taxation:
General - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_Singapore
Calculator - http://www.iras.gov.sg/irasHome/page01.aspx?id=88

Property:
http://www.propertyguru.com.sg/
http://www.iproperty.com.sg/

Shipping:
http://www.alliedpickfords.com.sg/
http://www.unigroupworldwide.com/
http://www.pricebreakshipping.com/

Pets:
License - http://www.ava.gov.sg/Services/LicensesPermitsAndCerts
Mover - http://www.petmovers.com.sg/

Courtesy: Tiffany Ng on LinkedIn

Singapore - most competitive IT industry in APAC

2011-09-28T09:41:00.003+08:00

Singapore has sailed past Australia to become the most comepetitive economy in the Asia-Pacific in information technology(IT).

The results come from this year's edition of the Economist Intelligence Unit's IT Industry Competitiveness Index. The index benchmarks 66 economies on a series of indicators covering critical foundation areas for IT innovation, such as overall business environment, IT infrastructure and human capital.

Singapore rose 6 places to become the third-most competitive IT market in the world

Singapore achieved its third-place global ranking on the strength of its research-and-development environment, which is ranked fifth in the world

Two thirds of the world's biggest 100 IT firms have a presence in Singapore

Singapore also scored well because of its support for IT-industry development, where it is ranked 5th in the world

Singapore was ranked 9th in the world and 2nd in the Asia-Pacific in 2009

Singapore banks still hiring, but cautiously, amid current gloom

2011-08-31T17:55:00.002+08:00

Banks in Singapore say they will keep hiring staff despite the current gloom.

This is a breath of fresh air, amid the job cuts that have swept the United States and Europe in recent weeks. An estimated 50,000 jobs have so far been affected in banks such as Credit Suisse, HSBC, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and Goldman Sachs.

As in 2008, banks worldwide are in the eye of the gathering financial storm.

However, despite their relatively upbeat outlook, banks here have added a caveat: Hiring in the next few months will be done more cautiously, in the light of the global economic uncertainties.

Source: Straits Time

Leading Indian CEOs

2011-07-28T13:36:00.002+08:00

Some of the leading global Indian business leaders that are making a mark at a global corporate levels are -

(SOURCE: TIME, Aug 1 - Aug 8, 2011 Issue)

Kraft Foods - SANJAY KHOSLA.

Mr. Khosla was appointed as Executive Vice President and President, Developing Markets effective August 1, 2010. Prior to that, he served as Executive Vice President and President, Kraft Foods International from January 2007 to July 2010.

Sanjay graduated with a Honors degree of Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi in 1973. In 2007, Sanjay was honored as a Distinguished Alumni of IIT Delhi. In 1998, Sanjay completed the Harvard University Advanced Management Program.

ArcelorMittal - LAKSHMI MITTAL

Lakshmi Narayan Mittal (born 15 June 1950)[4] is an Indian steel magnate. He is the chairman and chief executive officer of ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaking company.

Mittal is the richest man in the United Kingdom, second richest man in Europe and is presently the sixth richest individual in the world with a personal wealth of US$31.1 billion.

Lakshmi Niwas Mittal was born into a Marwari business family in Churu district of Rajasthan, India. His family moved from (Rajgarh)Sadulpur, Rajasthan to Calcutta in West Bengal. He graduated from St. Xavier's College, Calcutta where he graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in business and accounting with first class.

Motorola Mobility - SANJAY JHA

Sanjay K. Jha (born 1963) is Chairman and CEO of Motorola Mobility and previous served as co-chief executive officer of Motorola, Inc. from 2008.

Before joining Motorola, Sanjay Jha was COO of Qualcomm and president of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies (QCT). As COO, Jha was overlooking Corporate Research and Development and Qualcomm Flarion Technologies (QFT) in addition to his role as president of QCT, the chipset and software division of Qualcomm Incorporated.

Sanjay Jha was born in Sultanganj (Bhagalpur) Bihar, the eastern state of India[2] He holds a Ph.D. in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from the University of Strathclyde, Scotland. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from the University of Liverpool, England.

Pepsico - INDRA NOOYI

Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi (born 28 October 1955) is an Indian-born American executive. She is the current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo.

Nooyi was named on Wall Street Journal's list of 50 women to watch in 2007 and 2008, and was listed among Time's 100 Most Influential People in The World in 2007 and 2008. Forbes named her the #3 most powerful woman in 2008. Fortune ranked her the #1 most powerful woman in business in 2009 and 2010. On the 7th of October 2010 Forbes magazine ranked her the 6th most powerful woman in the world.

Indra Nooyi was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. She completed her schooling from Holy Angels AIHSS, Chennai. She received a Bachelor's degree in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics from Madras Christian College in 1974 and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management (MBA) from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta in 1976.

INSEAD - DIPAK JAIN

Dipak C. Jain is the current dean of INSEAD and the former dean of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Jain was born on June 9, 1957, in a small town called Tezpur, Assam, a state in north-eastern part of India. He did his schooling from Rastrabhasa Hindi School at Tezpur.

Harvard - NITIN NOHRIA

Nitin Nohria is the 10th and the current dean of Harvard Business School.

Nohria was born in Nohar, Rajasthan, India. Nohria graduated from St. Columba's School in New Delhi, India following which he earned a B.Tech in Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and earned a Ph.D. in Management from the Sloan School of Management, MIT.

Citigroup - VIKRAM PANDIT

Vikram Pandit (born 14 January 1957) is an Indian- American businessman who is the chief executive officer of Citigroup.

Vikram Pandit was born in Nagpur, India, to an affluent Marathi family. He completed his schooling at the Dadar Parsee Youths Assembly High School in Dadar, Mumbai. He moved to the United States when he was sixteen years old to study at Gannon University. He received a B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering from Columbia University in 1976 and 1977 respectively and an M.B.A in 1980 followed by a Ph.D. in Finance from Columbia Business School in 1986

Berkshire Hathaway - AJIT JAIN

Ajit Jain (born, July 23, 1951) is a businessman who currently heads several reinsurance businesses for Berkshire Hathaway and had once been touted as a possible successor to Warren Buffett.

Ajit Jain was raised in India's coastal state of Orissa. He graduated in 1972 from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur with a bachelor's degree in engineering.

Google- NIKESH ARORA

Nikesh Arora is the current Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer at Google.

Arora received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (now IIT BHU) in Varanasi, India in 1989. He also holds a master's degree from Boston College and an MBA from Northeastern University, both of which were awarded with distinction.

Facts: In a study of S&P 500 companies, Egon Zehnder found

- more Indian CEOs than any other nationality except American.

- Indians lead seven companies, Canadians, four.

Among the C-suite executives in the 2009 FORTUNE 500 were two mainland Chinese, two North American Chinese and 13 Indians.

Here in Singapore following are the notable CEO's appointed in recent years and remarkably post GFC. The list could be much longer if we were to include those

appointments at 1 or 2 level down.

DBS Group Holdings - PIYUSH GUPTA.

Piyush Gupta, was appointed as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) as of November 2009.

Gupta spent over two-thirds of his 27-year career in South East Asia and Hong Kong, including eight years in Singapore.

Gupta was Citi’s CEO for South East Asia-Pacific, covering Asean (Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Brunei), Australia, New Zealand and Guam. In this role, his responsibilities encompass all of Citi’s businesses including Financial Markets, Corporate and Investment Banking, Transaction Services, Credit Cards, Retail Banking and Wealth Management.

ANZ Banking Group - VISHNU SHAHANEY.

Vishnu Shahaney, previously managing director, specialised lending and loan product for ANZ in Asia Pacific, Europe and America, was appointed as CEO for its Singapore

office as of October 2010.

SINGAPORE MERCANTILE EXCHANGE(SMX) – V HARIHARAN.

Mr. V Hariharan was appointed as the interim CEO with effect from June 20, 2011.

Prior to joining SMZ he has held pivotal roles within the Financial Technologies Group -- a leading provider of trading technology solutions and the creator of several exchange and support eco-system ventures across India, Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Citibank - SHIRISH APTE.

Shirish Apte was appointed CEO of Citi Asia Pacific as of July 2009.

Apte moves to Asia-Pacific after guiding Citi in other emerging markets. He served as CEO of Citi's Central and Eastern Europe region.

Apte has served in several senior management roles in more than 26 years with Citi, including as CEO of Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa Citi markets and banking.

Please feel free to write in if any notable appointments are missing from the list to neitham(at)gmail(dot)com, alternately kindly leave your comments.

Align consultants and culture for best results

2010-10-07T17:16:00.002+08:00

The most successful recruitment companies are those that have a positive culture, alignment with their people, and "good intentions", according to performance expert Sally-Anne Cotton.

Accordingly to Cotton, people perform at their best - in a state of 'flow' - when they can bring "all of themselves" to the job, and when the company's needs - and that of clients - balance with the individual's needs.

Cotton, the managing director of Executive Alchemist, says there is "a growing body of evidence that suggests very strongly that we can balance hardline results and the people elements in organisations".

For example, she says, studies have found that:

organisations with adaptive cultures (those that are positive, values-driven, respectful and supportive) significantly outperform non-adaptive organisations (those driven by power and competition);
"good companies become great" when they are characterised by giving guidance and inspiration, and "living their values" (i.e. values drive decision making), performing 15 times better than the general market (in terms of shareholder return); and
the values and drivers of top-performing companies include client satisfaction, collaboration, integrity and teamwork, while companies are more likely to fail when employees face a culture of blame, short-term focus, internal competition and information hoarding.

When people come to work feeling supported, it has a huge impact on their performance, she says.

But not only does a company need to have a positive culture, it also needs its values to be aligned with the people it employs.

For example, if a company wants its team members to collaborate, it needs to put in place a system to reward collaboration (as opposed to rewarding individual results), she says.

Finally, Cotton says, successful sales-based organisations are those that focus on a "common good" - they want client transactions to be win-win situations, rather than one-sided.

Gone are the days of "getting a sale across the line at all costs", because that behaviour doesn't foster long-term relationships and doesn't benefit the business in the long run.

Not a lot of people find real meaning and purpose in what they do, she says, but that's what organisations need to strive.

Source: www.recruiterdaily.com.au

Just for laughs!

2010-09-15T16:03:00.001+08:00

Researchers' tool: eGrabber eMail-ID Extractor

2010-08-04T21:57:00.002+08:00

This I thought is a very handy tool for anyone Researching/Resourcing for email ids and then perhaps for mailing campaigns. This extractor is basically a plug-in to capture email ids from web pages and is free of charge.

The Plug-in installs in your browser toolbar. Clicking it extracts email IDs from the page, de-dupes, sorts and displays them for you in an Excel and Outlook friendly format.

Go to this link and down load the plug-in: http://www.egrabber.com/freebies/emailidextractor/

***Happy Hunting folks***

Ever need a phone # quickly? Use Google!

2010-07-23T00:49:00.001+08:00

Type in: phonebook: firstname lastname state abbr

Try it out - (if the person's is listed somewhere of course);

Also, while there are many ways & many tools to do this, if you need an email format for a company, type in Google:

"email * * companyname.com"

(Use quotes and replace 'companyname' with the actual co you are trying to find email address formats for. As you scan the results, it will give you email patterns/formats for that company - such as firstname.lastname@company.com or firstinitiallastname@company.com, etc)

- by Gary Cozin

Facebook Statistics!

2010-06-01T22:11:00.003+08:00

While browsing through a magazine today I came across some statistics on Facebook and it got me really curious so I started googling on Facebook and came up with some interesting stats.

Some of them are listed below -

FB is 6 years old (founded in Feb'2004)
Over 400 million active users (Only China and India have larger population than FB has members)
People spend over 500 billion minutes per month on FB.
700,000 new users everyday which amounts to 21 million new users every month.
About 70% of FB users are outside the United States
As of June 2010 there are 187 countries with registered FB member
While USA tops the list with 123 016 580 members, at the bottom of the pile is Sierra Leone with 5400 members
Indonesia has the highest number of users from ASIA with 24 722 360 members and they are just behind the US of A and England.
As for tiny Singapore with a population of 4 million we are 38th on the list with 2 253 640 members and user growth of 4.52% from last year. Which is relatively high penetration rate(46.57%).
The country with the highest user growth is Laos with an astonishing figure of 82.01% while the lowest user growth is in Namibia with a drop of minus 286.21%
The top 3 countries with the highest user growth are Laos, Iraq(38.31%) and South Korea(20.07%)
Lastly, the top 3 categories on FB that has the highest number of fans are (sex) Playboy on Facebook - 1 4110 189 fans, (news) CNN on Facebook - 840 628 and lastly (information) Google.com on Facebook - 696 883 fans.

It is rather intriguing that Playboy which falls under the category SEX has the highest number of fans considering the fact that women have always made up a larger share of the FB user base than men! Thats something to ponder upon ..... ;-)
/ta

Singapore banks on hiring drive!

2010-01-09T22:56:00.002+08:00

What most of us in recruitment industry are in the know for the past few months became a headline news this morning as The Straits Times did a check on banks here in Singapore on their recruitment forecast for 2010.

On top of the pile was British-based Barclays Bank, which is leading the hiring resurgence with plans to add more than 500 staff here this year. Most will be employed in the bank’s technology section, in general operations and in finance.

Besides Barclays Bank, notable mentions are DBS with 500 positions, HSBC with 200 senior positions and ANZ Bank with more than 800 staff that will include the staff they will inherit from RBS' retail and commercial businesses.

From local to foreign, small players to big boys, almost all banks operating here have recruitment high on the agenda.

Morgan Stanley, State Bank of India, Standard Chartered Bank and OCBC Bank are just some of the others adding staff.

The outlook definitely seems very upbeat at least for the first half of the year and as for the rest of the year one has to wait and watch how the global economy sustains its recovery momentum.

For the moment, its happy billing days for the recruitment industry here in Singapore and here's wishing everyone a great 'Year of the Tiger' ahead.

*Happy hunting folks!*

Four Sources of Candidates - by Bill Radin

2009-12-11T10:48:00.002+08:00

As a recruiter, I’ve found that there are four basic sources of candidates. Or, to put it another way, there are four ways in which I can organize and make best use of my candidate resources. These sources are:

1. Candidates I own.

These are all the people who I already have in my database. I don’t own them in the literal sense, of course. The term “candidates I own” simply applies to the people who are in my contact files—and my files are something that I own.

The candidates I own are the people I already know about or whose contact information, profiles or resumes are in my database. Whenever I start a search, I turn to these people first, not only because they’re the most accessible, but because over the years, I’ve gotten to know many of them, and I’ve qualified them, sent them to interviews, and maybe even placed them.

I feel like if I already have a history with people, and they trust me, and I’ve invested time in developing them, then those relationships will result in better decisions on my part as to whether they’re right for a job. And certainly, someone I have a good working relationship with will make for a more reliable and generous source of referrals. Even someone I’ve only spoken to once a long time ago is an owned candidate, because there’s some degree of history between us.

2. Candidates I rent.
These are candidates whose names or resumes are made available through job boards, resume banks, databases, directories and split networks. I call them “candidates I rent” because they’re in the public domain, and they’re available to any other recruiters who are willing to pay a subscription fee or join a network in order to gain access. Once I make contact with the candidates I rent and import their records into my own files, they can be merged into my community of talent, that is, the candidates I own.

3. Candidates I cultivate or find through original research.

Let’s say I do a Google search and I discover someone who’s written an article or a technical paper and the person’s got really good skills. Or say I get a referral from a candidate who mentions the names of three of his peers during the course of a sourcing call. Or let’s say I visit a trade show, looking for applications engineers and I strike up a conversation with someone at a booth, and she gives me her business card. These are candidates I found through original research, and after I get to know them and add them to my files, they also become candidates I own.

4. Candidates who come to me through my pipeline.

These are people I reach out to or attract by virtue of all the things I’ve done to market my services, advertise my expertise and build my brand and reputation. If you have an account with LinkedIn or Facebook or MySpace or Twitter or any of the social networks, your contacts are a major force in your pipeline.

Pipeline candidates are also the people who visit my Web site and send me their resumes, or respond to a job posting, or ask to receive my newsletter or candidates who are referred to me by word of mouth. Pipeline candidates are people who hear about a workshop I’m giving on interviewing techniques, or see an article I wrote in a trade publication.

I take my pipeline very seriously, and I set it up and maintain it for the express purpose of magnetizing people and drawing them into my community. Once they find me—or we become “friends”—they too, get merged into my files as candidates I own.

The Power of OwnershipI’m a big believer in candidate ownership, because when you own your candidates, you’re less dependent on other sources, and you won’t need to spend your hard-earned cash on rental candidates who are accessible to any number of other recruiters. Given the choice, I’d rather be self-sufficient and in control of my own resources.

Another reason to own your candidates is that—and this is a slightly advanced concept—once your database reaches critical mass, it’ll begin to have an asset value unto itself. And what that means is that your inventory can then be leveraged. So, for example, if a company or a recruiting partner or a third party is looking for a particular type of candidate that you have a reputation for owning, you have leverage. So if you choose to do so, you can earn a higher fee for a placement, or do a split on favorable terms if you decide that sharing the candidates in your database would be a good business decision. With ownership, you have that control. If you’re just renting candidates everyone else is renting, your control becomes very limited or even non-existent. Of course, it goes without saying that this is the strategy that works best for me. The most important thing is to find what works best for you and stick with it.

Tips - If I've learnt 3 things in recruitment

2009-09-03T19:08:00.002+08:00

1. Rejection isn't personal!

2. The longer you procrastinate over something the harder it becomes

3. Sometimes you just have to walk away from a deal

-by Diane Marker, MD, Marker Consulting - www.markerconsulting.com

Source:UK Recruiter Newsletter #419, dated 2 September 2009.

Microsoft Excel: How to Hide Tabs

2009-08-27T17:16:00.008+08:00

If your spreadsheet is shared and used by others, you may want to keep your formulas and some data from being viewed or changed by others. By hiding the tabs that these are located, you can allow others to use your spreadsheet without having to worry about them playing where they don’t belong.

1. Open your saved Excel Spreadsheet.
At the bottom of your spreadsheet, you can see all available tabs. For this example, we will hide the Formulas tab.

2. On your keyboard, press ALT+F11 to bring up the Visual Basic editor.

3. At the top of the left pane, locate the desired tab that is to be hidden and select it.

4. Go to the bottom of the left pane and locate the Properties for the selected tab.

5. Go to the Visible setting and use associated dropdown to select 0 -xlSheetHidden.

6. Go back to the top of the left pane.

7. Right-click VBAProject and select VBAProject Properties.

8. Select the Protection tab.

9. Check the Lock project for viewing checkbox.

10. Input a password, repeat it to confirm the password.

11. Click the OK button.

12. Go to the menu, click File and select Save.

When you return to your spreadsheet, you will now see that the tab is hidden.

To make the tab visible again, press ALT+F11 to open the Visual Basic editor. Input the password and change the Visible setting for the tab back to 1 -xlSheetVisible.

Source: Tech-Recipes

How I Made 3 Hires with Twitter in 6 Weeks

2009-08-26T20:51:00.002+08:00

Article by Megan Hopkins (Full story available on Boolean Black Belt )

Twitter Hire #1

I posted my first requirement for a .Net developer and (I’d have to check my Twitter diary to be certain…and yes, I kept one…stop laughing. No, seriously. Stop.) waited for any sign of life on the other end. It seemed like 17 minutes went by (again, that’s in the diary) and then finally, someone RT’d (“retweeted” for all you newbies) my Tweet. “Holy crap!,” I thought, “This is working.”

Eventually, I had several people retweeting my post that day and by the end of the day, I had five referrals, three interviews, and…wouldn’t you know it…a placement…with a great .Net talent I never would have known otherwise. This is when I started to really believe in the power of Twitter. The fact that this candidate saw my Tweet because someone I didn’t know reposted it blew my mind. I was addicted. So addicted now, in fact, that even as I write this blog post, I am Tweeting about it…well, that and how my dog smells like corn chips.

Twitter Hire #2

My second placement happened much like the first one. I had a position come in that I was on the fence about – partially because I was slammed…and partially because I’m a dev-loving snob (this position was infrastructure…ick!). In any event, I updated my Twitter followers on my newest need and it got retweeted several times. I’ve found it helps to ask for a Tweet to be retweeted but more on this in a second. This was position was slower to fill (it was a “purple squirrel”) but about a week or so after I posted it, I got a message from a candidate (and now Kforce contractor) that was interested.

It seemed he had just been laid off unexpectedly and was now on the market…and was just the purple squirrel I thought I’d never (ever, ever) find. He emailed me his resume and within four hours we had him driving up to Jacksonville from South Florida to interview face to face. He received an offer a day later and he started work the following Wednesday. This was a particular success for me because he was an out of area candidate that I would have never met otherwise, he was one of very few that had his skill set, and it was a perfect match with a brand new client (that coincidentally, came from a Twitter lead). @OrlandoTechNuts was feeling pretty darn good about herself at this point.

Twitter Hire #3

My most recent placement is the one that gets me most excited. I had been recruiting (or stalking) this candidate for about a month (at least!). He was absolutely dead on for a position I was working on (again with a new client) and for some crazy reason, he would not answer his phone, and he would not return my hundreds of voicemails and emails. I briefly contemplated showing up at his house but I was advised against it (seriously…or not). I had just about given up on this candidate (apparently he was too good for me) when I got a direct message on Twitter about a job I had tweeted.

My contact had a friend that was looking and was looking for a reputable recruiter to work with and he saw the RT of my position. He was interested. Well, wouldn’t you know if that the candidate that was interested was the very same candidate that I had been chasing down and losing sleep over (yes, I get very involved in my job). Looks like @OrlandoTechNuts now had the upper hand. For a moment, I thought about acting like I was a jilted ex-girlfriend and not calling him back…but, I am a recruiter. We’ll always call back. Long story short, he FINALLY answered his phone when I called and we got him a job (and a great one!) within two weeks.

Twitter Hire #4 is in the Works!

Stay tuned! I’m very close to getting my fourth Twitter hire in the next week. Assuming our client doesn’t go MIA (again…gotta love that, right recruiters?), I should have another great dev talent working very soon. Like the others, this was a guy that I had never met, nor probably would ever meet, because he is a passive channel candidate and not on the boards…and frankly, he wasn’t too keen on recruiters (until @OrlandoTechNuts got to him, that is!).

Following the right people (and having the right people follow you) along with tweeting relevant information is a great way to build your credibility and it can effectively separate you from the hundreds of other recruiters out there – that is what really helped move this potential hire along.

How to Use Twitter in Recruiting

I look back now and kick myself for not being open to Twitter sooner. It took a while to get Kforce onboard and unblock it for me but once I got going, I was not going to stop. Twitter has become such an integral part of my every day life (even outside of work) and I’m not sure what I’d do or how I’d effectively recruit without it at this point. Sure, I’d manage (after all, David Dunkel didn’t have Twitter and somehow he managed to do ok), but I would not be able to touch nearly as many people and connect with my community as deeply as I have.

Your use of Twitter needs to be approached like any other aspect of recruiting or sales. It is a long term investment and you really have to care to grow and develop your relationships. One of the most common concerns I hear from candidates is that recruiters seem to be all about instant gratification. They tend to view talent as a commodity and lose sight of the fact that they are working with people. The relationship is not important and there is a strong need to take your “kill” back to the den as quickly as possible.

If you go into it (it being Twitter, in this case) thinking, “What am I going to get out of this and how soon?” you might as well stop now. Chances are you aren’t going to walk away with an immediate “reward”. I think the majority of my success has stemmed from actually caring about the connections I make and what is going on in my (IT) community.

I try my best to contribute daily (and this time I’m not referring to my Tweets about my smelly dog) and demonstrate that I am very much invested in my community. It never hurts to be engaging. Ask questions, respond to Tweets that interest you, and basically, take an active interest in what your fellow Twitter folk are doing. It has to be more than just posting a job opening you have. It never hurts to RT other people’s Tweets, either. That goes a long way.

Now, when you do decide to Tweet your positions, make sure those Tweets count. Make sure you don’t use all 140 characters (that is a pain to RT…and I learned that the hard way in the beginning) and if you want others to RT your positions, ask for it. I always do and people are more than willing to oblige.

Of course there is also the risk that Twitter can drain all of your time, but so far, even though I heavily rely on it, that really hasn’t been an issue. I do keep it up all day at work…and on my phone…but I check it once an hour or so to see if there is anything relevant I can comment on (or occasionally heckle some of my dev friends) and then I post something as I feel like it. I’d say if you added up the collective amount of time I spend tweeting, it is around an hour or so per day. Considering that I’m a full time recruiter who works about 60+ hours a week, that’s a relatively small investment and the rewards have been huge…plus you make some pretty interesting friends along the way.

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, I really don’t think there is just one way to leverage Twitter successfully. My experience was very much trial and error and so far, I’ve managed pretty well (other than making a few rookie errors). Like anything, stick to the basics. Remember that relationships are king and you can’t make a withdrawal if you never make a deposit. If you keep this in mind as you Tweet, I promise you will be right on track to make 3 hires in 6 weeks using Twitter too. Trust me. After all, I am always (almost) right.

About the Author
Megan Hopkins is a senior technical recruiter working for Kforce in Orlando. She specializes in recruiting .Net developers and is very active in the Microsoft development community, regularly attending events such as Orlando.Net User Group and the Tampa ASP.Net MVC Developer User Group at Microsoft - she’s also the exclusive sponsor of these groups and several more.

Facebook used to screen potential employees!

2009-08-21T08:53:00.004+08:00

US - More employers are using social networking sites such as Facebook to screen potential employees, says a new CareerBuilder survey.

Forty-five percent of 2,600 hiring managers report using these networking sites to research job candidates, a huge increase from 22% last year. On top of that, 11% plan to start using these sites for screening.

Out of those that conduct background checks and online searches of job candidates, 29% use Facebook, 26% use LinkedIn and 21% use MySpace. 11% of respondents search blogs, while 7% follow candidates on Twitter.

The industries that screen job candidates via social networking sites or search engines vary; those which are most likely include jobs specialising in technology and sensitive information. For instance, 63% of employers in the information technology industry screen candidates, while 53% in professional and business services do so.

Thirty-five percent of employers report finding content on these social networking sites that caused them not to hire candidates. Some reasons include finding out candidates posted provocative or inappropriate photographs or information, bad-mouthed previous employers, co-workers or clients, and lied about their qualifications. Also, 14% of employers have disregarded candidates because they sent a message using an emoticon, while 16% had refused to hire because candidates used text language in an email or job application.

On the flip side, 18% of employers have found content on social networking sites that made them hire candidates. Most commonly, the candidates' profiles provided a good feel of their personality and fit, or their profiles supported their professional qualifications.

Happy hiring days are here again!

2009-08-19T20:06:00.003+08:00

Singapore: There's something positive, bullish and a general feeling of subdued excitement in everyone's outlook these past few weeks more so within the recruitment community.

Look around and you will see, hear and feel the difference in the air as compared to few months back.

News are abound with confident boosting plans, actions and positive forecast for hiring needs.

For some this week itself has brought in loads of business in the form of new assignments and projects that they've not seen in the past 2 months combine. Pipelines are very strong so are the billing numbers.

The feeling that I get when I spoke to couple of recruiters is that they are going to end with a strong quarter. Which needless to say is a very welcoming change indeed.

I am very confident that this positive momentum is going to see us through the remaining quarter and take off in Q1 2010 to something of a record of sort.

Some of the notable banks that are in hiring mode are Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, StanChart, ANZ, Credit Suisse and even the locals banks.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch is resorting to having specialist in-house recruiters for different streams by infusing new blood by hiring experience recruiters and also calling back some of their recruiters who were made redundant during the aftermath of BoA buying ML. They are now poised to hire financial experts and technocrats in the hundreds.

Barclays is as strong as ever with every recruiter fighting for a share of the headcount pie.

Credit Suisse on the underhand is looking for senior leaders in big numbers while they continue to build their offshore support strength.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group which was very much a small player, an unknown entity here in Singapore is bursting in its seams with their program to built a Super Regional Bank and now added to this aggressive growth plan they also have the huge task of hiring in hundreds resources for their integration with RBS (retail, wealth and commercial businesses).

StanChart is still in the news with their plans to hire 850 priority bankers while ANZ is planning to hire over 100 private bankers over the next 18 months.

The hiring market is bullish indeed but I am positive that we are still in the initial stage of the bottom curve and we can be prepared to see much more hiring frenzies in the months to come.

Happy hunting and bigger billings to all the recruiter folks out there!

Tips - If I've learnt 3 things in recruitment

2009-07-29T20:01:00.002+08:00

1. It actually is a numbers game (as annoying as my previous managers were in drumming that in to me!), and you do need to make hay while the sun is shining

2. Complacency is the root of failure!... Never take a candidates word for granted (or client for that matter)

3. You're only as good as your last quarter

Provided by Claire Whalley of ARM Ltd

StanChart to boost pool of relationship managers to 300

2009-07-29T14:15:00.001+08:00

AS AFFLUENCE in Asia rises, Standard Chartered Bank is ramping up its wealth management business in Singapore.

In an expansion of its priority banking business here, the foreign bank yesterday said it planned to hire 300 relationship managers over the next three years, more than double its current number.

So far, it has hired 80, it said. Priority banking caters to individuals with $200,000 or more in net assets.

Other banks are also hiring more. HSBC says it is planning to take on about 100 staff in wealth management, while OCBC says it will continue hiring selectively.

Market watchers say this is a good time for banks that are relatively unaffected by the financial crisis to capture more market share.

Singapore's economy bounces back

2009-07-14T22:16:00.002+08:00

There was a big sigh of relief for many Singaporeans as the economy expanded in the second quarter at its fastest rate in nearly 6 years.

Growth surpassed expectations, with a more than 20% rise from the previous quarter. All thanks to a surge in biomedical production.

Manufacturing is not exactly a huge part of Singapore's economy, but the island specialises in pharmaceuticals and high-end specialist manufacturing.

And increased demand for flu vaccines helped an already recession-proof sector to expand.

Exports, which are the real lifeblood of Singapore's economy, rose nearly 6% in May.

Shipments of raw materials such as iron ore are picking up. The reason, yet again, appears to be China.

The rest of the manufacturing sector is still struggling, however, and retail sales are still down. Domestic consumption is not picking up, so analysts say the worst may not be over yet.

- Mariko Oi, reporter, BBC Asia Business Report

If I've learnt 3 things in recruitment...

2009-07-12T20:45:00.002+08:00

1) Be completely flexible to your clients' needs

2) Don't promise something you can't deliver

3) It's not rocket science! The basics of hard-work, integrity & good client/candidate relationships will pay off.

By Michelle Jones of e-recruitment buddy

Recruiters worst fear - back out!

2009-07-11T00:13:00.004+08:00

Continuing from my previous post I would like to dwell here on the subject of back out in a little more detail.

The pain of losing out on a deal a billing does not apply anymore now that I don't have to worry on targets but it still does leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I still believe that one should always be transparent if not at least there is such a thing as courtesy and that one is obliged to his or her recruiter in explaining the circumstances under which he/she had to back out or turn down an offer. After all, Singapore is but just a small island and you never know whom you bump into around the corner street or at the food court.

A good and wise candidate typically will have at close contact a doctor whom he can trust for his general well-being, a mentor a guru that he can always go to for advice or seek wisdom on life and someone also said a good recruiter whom he can call up anytime to seek career advice/better opportunity or simply banter with like good friend.

To everyone job seekers out there or for that matter anyone aspiring for better career opportunities you will gain more if consciously you try and cultivate a good relationship with your recruiter by giving and or showing respect and regards. We recruiters thrives on such and don't be surprised your gesture might just be reciprocated with similar kinds or even deeds ;-)

Singapore job market shows signs of pick-up!

2009-07-10T23:09:00.004+08:00

This is my second post in as many weeks on the improving sentiments in the job market here in Singapore. I would also like to believe that this positive waves will continue for another quarter to allow us to propel through the rest of the year into the 1st quarter of 2010.

Almost every paper this morning carried news of survey results collated from some of the leading multinational recruitment firms. Everyone echoed similar sentiments; higher recruitment projection for the next quarter, substantial increased in hiring this quarter and the two sectors that showed most remarkable turnaround are IT and Banking Finance.

Q3 forecast as per Hudson's May survey shows - 32 percent of respondents in banking and finance expect to increase recruitment as compared to 19 percent in Q2.

While in IT & Technology due to the result of solid pipeline of revenue-generating projects built up in Q2 25 percent of respondents expects to grow headcount.

As an in-house recruiter in a mid size regional bank contrary to the negative hiring trend in the market outside in the past few quarters we've never slowed down on our recruitment pace.

However, lately and even more so this last 2 months I am getting to experience candidates that are willing to turn down or back out of offers while in the process of signing the contract or in one instance just days before reporting for work.

This to me, from past experience ( Y2K project and SAP boom days) is one sure sign that the job market is bullish and that candidates have in their hands multiple job offers.

Wishing all the recruiter folks out there happy hunting and good billings!

Singapore employment outlook brightens

2009-07-01T20:22:00.002+08:00

Singapore, June 2009: Could this represent a "green shoot" for the Singapore economy? According to Manpower's quarterly employment outlook survey, more employers are expecting to return to the hiring table over the next three months.

Of the 697 employers considered for the third quarter update, 12% expected to see an increase in their headcounts. A further 7% predicted a decrease in staff while the remaining respondents expected there would be no change in the third quarter.

Philippe Capsie, country manager of Manpower Singapore, says this represents a significant turnaround on the group's second quarter survey. Then, more employers expected to reduce headcount, rather than increase it. "While there is no quick fix in this current economy downturn, employers' hiring confidence is improving," he said. "Most employers are saying they will retain present staff in the third quarter, indicating that the worst may be behind us."

The survey considered seven distinct industry sectors. Of these, four (including manufacturing, finance and construction) predicted negative employment growth overall. In contrast, modest growth was predicted for the transportation, utilities and retail trade sectors.

If I've learnt 3 things in recruitment - by Anonymous

2009-06-10T20:06:00.002+08:00

1) Go with your gut instinct...............if you think a candidate will let you down at some point, they will.
2) Keep in communication with clients. If you're struggling to fill a role, tell them so and manage their expectations effectively. They will respect you a lot more for it.
3) Everyone makes mistakes, just don't make them twice! I would prefer not to be referenced.

Standard Chartered to hire 100 bankers

2009-05-13T16:52:00.000+08:00

Singapore - Over the next 12 months, Standard Chartered will hire 100 private bankers to support its wealth management in fast-growing markets across Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

While the bank did not elaborate further on its hiring plans, a bank source said most of its new hires will take place mostly in Asia, with the remaining going to Europe and the Middle East.

Peter Flavel, global head of its private bank unit, says Standard Chartered is in good shape despite the global downturn. "'As we're seeing a continuing increase in client demand for our private banking services, we will continue to invest in attracting talent to further strengthen our proposition," says Flavel.

He adds that the bank is scouting for talented candidates with excellent track records and consistency in fulfilling client expectations.

"'We are here to meet clients' needs. To achieve this, we need a certain type of relationship manager - someone with exceptional people and advisory skills, a strong team player, commitment to building long-term partnerships with clients."

About 100 out of 350 relationship managers in Standard Chartered worldwide are based in Singapore, according to a report by The Straits Times.

SG job ads rose 18.6% in Q1

2009-05-07T08:18:00.002+08:00

Even as the economic recession deepended, the volume of job advertisements, interestingly, has picked up between January and March.

The number of job ads in Singapore rose 18.6 per cent, according to the Robert Walters Asia Job Index which tracks ad volumes, online and in print, for professional positions.

I guess, we can take this as good news considering the fact that everything else seems so 'bearish' at the moment.

What is Your Recruiting Strategy? By Lou Adler

2009-04-29T16:28:00.003+08:00

Do you have a recruiting strategy, or do you just adopt the latest fad and see if works? This probably won't work. Tactics don't determine strategy; strategy determines tactics. And when business conditions change, a company's strategy needs a corresponding change. So does the company's recruiting strategy. Some of these strategic changes are brought about by technology innovations, demographic shifts, changes in government policy, and economic cycles. Regardless of their causes, incorporating these changes and shifts into the business planning process allows companies to remain competitive.

Those that recognize and incorporate these shifts first enjoy a significant competitive advantage. Consider Microsoft in the 1980s and Google today, or Western Union (telegraph) in the 1850s, as examples of how to adapt to these big changes properly. Now consider GE which figured it out for 100 years, but blew it in the last 10.

Over the past 10 years I've been predicting recruiting industry trends based on similar technology, political, economic, and demographic shifts. In many cases I was spot on; in others, off by a year or two; and in very few, dead wrong. With this as a backdrop, here are my latest predictions on what you need to get ready for the next war for talent:

1. Demise of the major job boards.

I've been predicting this for 10 years. It just makes no sense to me why a good person with multiple opportunities is willing to spend the time to find and apply to a boring job that is just like every other job. Of course, what I missed were the aggregators acting as intermediaries to make the job boards more efficient and the growth of niche job boards. However, my prediction is that the big job boards will further diminish in importance over the next few years in parallel with the economic recovery, except for companies who have a high volume of jobs to fill.

2. The adoption of consumer marketing principles to recruiting.

I started discussing this trend in the mid-90s right after the job boards became a major sourcing tool. In consumer marketing it's obvious that those companies that had more creative ads that were positioned to be found had better results. The search engine marketing and optimization piece of this was the driving force behind the rise of Yahoo! and Google Search. In the early 2000s a few brave companies started adopting these same consumer marketing concepts for recruiting, but it took 3-4 years after they were proven out in the consumer world before they were generally accepted by HR/recruiting. Around 2006, recruitment advertising was only 1-2 years behind its consumer marketing cousin; and today, with the most progressive companies, it's even. Based on this trend, it's not too far-fetched to predict that the majority of companies will be adopting these consumer marketing principles without any lag time. The most progressive will be adopting them in beta.

3. The rise of the "ERP-pipeline-CRM-talent hub" sourcing model.

With the rise of Web 2.0, social media, blogs, Twitter, and LinkedIn, it's pretty obvious that finding the names of potential candidates will have little value, but nurturing them and having them follow you will have tremendous value. This is why building a pipeline of prospects kept warm by robust CRM systems will be critical. It's also obvious that your best employees have heard of, or personally know, the best people in your industry and in their field of expertise. Tapping into this direct and indirect network through a far-reaching and progressive employee referral program will be a critical component of tomorrow's ERP programs. Replacing individual postings will be search engine optimized talent hubs, where candidates can search for jobs by class and company (e.g., all Flash developers at Google). These are company- and job-specific niche boards that will replace the need for aggregators and all public boards. At these sites prospects can submit resumes, be funneled to specific openings, or just be followers.

4. Time of possession will become the dominant recruiting metric for hiring top people.

Getting the names of great people is now simple, but getting them first isn't. The sourcing sweet spot of the near future will be to get these people to call you on the first day they decide to get serious about considering a new career opportunity. You can see where you stand on this measure by starting to ask the best people you come across how long they've been looking. If it's not on the first day, worry. Then start tracking it. Of course, you need to add this objective to your recruiting strategy and then figure out how to pull it off. It's pretty obvious that those candidates found on day one are of higher quality than those found after they've been looking 2-3 weeks. (Note: good recruiting agencies are already doing this.)

5. Increased focus on top performers vs. the masses.

A basic principle of consumer marketing is to identify an ideal target customer and develop messages that meet their motivating needs. They then need to be pushed to them through the best media channels, like TV, radio, blogs, Facebook, etc., to drive the highest response rate. Up until the recent past, most recruitment advertising has been targeted to attract average performers (consider your boring job descriptions) and pushed to where the best rarely go (the big job boards). Building an ideal candidate persona is the first step in determining the messages and the appropriate media. This profile examines the prospective candidate from multiple perspectives identifying job hunting patterns, their decision criteria, networking and social connections, motivators, and short- and long-term career needs, to name the most obvious. For example, the best CPAs will soon want to be involved in the conversion of U.S. GAAP accounting to international standards, and the best electrical engineers want to work on developing new ways to create a secure smart grid.

6. The rise and fall of Twitter will be offset by the increasing importance of the corporate recruiter, employer branding, and job linking.

In a sea of sameness and info overload, the brand will become king again. Twitter will become useless unless a loyal group of followers is developed and maintained. The dominant reason top people accept offers is the opportunity to learn something, make an impact, and grow. An employer brand can establish this overarching message. Linking the corporate vision and strategy to each class of job through the talent hub can increase the number of prospects and followers as long as the tweets and emails enhance the story. However, the corporate recruiter will become the critical cog in this system – just as the sales rep is in any other complex buying process. If corporate recruiters are just doing data updates, box checking, and admin, the possibilities offered by consumer-based Web 2.0 marketing will fail to launch.

7. There will be no silver bullet.

For the past 10 years, many corporate recruiting leaders have based their strategies on becoming early adopters of the latest fad. This actually is not a bad way to go, as long as you're first, and are willing to change horses once diminishing returns set in. While this will still work, there won't be any overarching new technology that solves everyone's needs, since once everyone has it, the best you can get are average results. A sourcing strategy needs to be built upon a strong integrated technology platform flexible enough to handle the latest cool stuff.

8. Hiring will become a business process.

Actually, I'm not too sure of this one. But it seems odd that with hiring top talent such an important issue, most company execs and HR leaders don't really do too much to ensure it's done properly. Of course, they'll sometimes train their managers in an interviewing process they don't use and they'll give the recruiting department some extra resources when hiring spikes. However, this is not a strategy; this is a tactical reaction to a change in business conditions. Despite this typical response, some companies actually have implemented an end-to-end integrated process for hiring top performers with startling results. This covers how jobs are defined (clarifying performance expectations), the implementation of consumer marketing-based sourcing programs, the use of an evidenced-based interviewing process, all tied together by a solution-based sales system for recruiting. This is the process described in my book, Hire With Your Head.

The most important of these predictions is the idea that hiring must become a business process if you want to hire top people on a continuous basis. However, to pull this off you must recognize that there will be no silver bullets or short-term panaceas. The silver bullets do work in the short term, so making the use of these as a component of a recruiting strategy if it's tied to the overarching idea of doing everything described here. While these are predictions of where the industry is going, they're really not predictions at all, since many companies are now doing most of these things already, and successfully. The key here is not to get caught in the trap of tactics driving strategy. This is a fool's game that can't be won.

Executives' pay most affected by downturn

2009-04-07T17:28:00.001+08:00

Singapore - Top executives have been most affected by the wage freeze, a widely-adopted measure taken by companies to cut costs and retain employees.

A global survey conducted by Hay Group across 2,000 companies from 88 countries last month reports Singapore as the country hit hardest by the economic downturn in South East Asia.

Eighty percent of the Singapore respondents predict that they would not be able to hit their business targets, compared to the 21% in a previous Hay Group survey in November 2008.

The report also show Singapore as registering a 0% base salary increase, with clerical level and high-performing employees as they only two groups of exception toreceived modest pay rises.

Many companies believe that the downturn has the greatest bearing on clerical level workers,and the nominal pay increase is used to balance the cost of living.

How to Overcome Objections Related to the Recession - Mark Whitby

2009-03-20T15:40:00.003+08:00

The "Number One" question I get asked these days is "How do I overcome objections related to the current economic climate, for example: we're downsizing, the project is on hold, we're making cutbacks, we don't have any budget for recruiting, etc."

1. There's No Such Thing as a New Objection
The first thing to realize is that these objections are not new. They're just variations on the classic objection: "We are not recruiting," or "We don't have a need," or "We don't have any vacancies." The only difference is that we're hearing it a lot more often these days, which I realize is incredibly frustrating when you're trying to generate new business.

Often a prospect assumes that if they're not hiring, there's no point in talking to recruiters. For most recruiters this objection signals the end of the conversation. It's basically "Game Over," right? So what we can do about this situation?

2. It's Not Personal
Secondly, realize this is not personal. They're not rejecting you personally and they might be just as frustrated about the situation as you are - they might even be worried about their own job security! So try not to let this objection upset you. They're really just giving you some information; it's what you choose to do with that information that separates the good recruiters from the great recruiters.

3. Don't Give Up Too Easily!
Next, don't give up too easily. If you handle this objection the right way it can still lead to a very productive conversation. The key is to use a soft sell approach, not a hard sell. You can't make someone give you their vacancies, especially if there's none to be had. So, take the pressure off yourself and especially take the pressure off your prospect. The more pressure you apply the more resistant they will become.

4. You Can Still Make the Call a Success
Finally, if they're not currently recruiting, focus on achieving your "secondary" objectives. Your goal in this situation is not to get a vacancy or to get an interview for your candidate; the desired outcome is to have a meaningful conversation, to build rapport with a potential client and to gain as much information as you possibly can and agree a timetable for staying in touch.

Even if they have no immediate need for your service, take the opportunity to have a conversation with them. At the very least you'll be building a relationship for future business.

"Mark Whitby - The Recruitment Coach - helps recruiters and recruiting firm owners to maximize their billings and business performance. If you want to generate more clients, candidates and placements, get your FREE tips now at: http://www.RecruiterTrainingOnline.com."

Barclays set to hire in Singapore

2009-02-13T09:09:00.002+08:00

BRITISH banking giant Barclays is sticking to its aggressive plan to hire up to 1,500 highly skilled staff by early 2011 in Singapore - despite the turmoil that has ravaged many financial institutions.

The bank wants project managers, applications development managers, and software and IT specialists for its Business Technology Centre at Changi Business Park Central launched last year.

Barclays has already hired 250 staff - mainly locals - and wants to increase this headcount to 650 by the end of this year.

The centre will allow Barclays to run its international cards and banking platforms out of Singapore.

The new staff are in addition to the 2,500 that Barclays already has for its investment banking and wealth management businesses in Singapore.

Hudson Report (Hiring & HR Trends) - Q1 2009

2009-02-06T13:44:00.001+08:00

The Hudson Report Quarter1 2009: Singapore employers keep hiring cautious and headcount steady.

Key Highlights -

23% of respondents expect to increase hiring in this quarter, down from 37% in Q4 2008, with the majority of respondents (65%) who will keep headcount steady whilst 12% of respondents will decrease headcount;
Expectations show a substantial decline year-on-year: the 23% of respondents planning to grow headcount this quarter compared with 51% in Q1 2008;
Expected salary increases for new managerial hires remain healthy, with 39% who will pay a 6-10% increase, and 32% who will pay 11-20% increase;
Most respondents will give out year-end bonus payments, with only 17% of respondents planning to pay no bonuses;
Across all sectors, 47% of respondents forecast that their company’s performance will be excellent or good in 2009, while 7% say it will be poor;
Freezing headcount, along with global headcount approvals and strategic hiring, are HR strategies most likely to be adopted in response to the economic downturn.

Click here to download Hudson Report

How to Switch Desk Specialties by Bill Radin

2009-01-23T09:19:00.002+08:00

If you're recruiting in an industry that's at death's door and nothing you do seems to revive it, a change in desk specialties may be in order.

You don't necessarily have to drop your existing specialty altogether; you can keep your "core" constituency active while mining for gold in other areas. However, to get the most out of your efforts, the more concentrated time you spend on your prospective market, the better.

As you begin the exploration process, look for a niche that draws on your existing assets, such as your database of candidates and companies, plus your industry knowledge and technical expertise. For example, if software developers are no longer in demand, there may be a market for software sales managers. If no linkage to your assets can be found, then you may be forced to rebuild your desk from scratch.

To increase the odds of a successful transition, consider the following tips:

1. Find a niche that's in demand, not only now, but promises to be in the future. The last thing you want to do is reinvent yourself all over again in two or three years.

2. Make sure you have some degree of affinity for the population you'll be mingling with, and at least a modicum of interest in the new field's technology, skill set or culture. It's hard to be an advocate on behalf of an industry—or a candidate population—that leaves you cold or makes you feel uncomfortable.

3. Don't expect instant success. It takes time to learn the nuances of a new desk specialty and reach the point when the pieces begin to fit together. It's been said that a prospect needs to be contacted six or seven times before any sort of name recognition or rapport can be built.

4. Remember the basics. Your primary objective is to arrange sendouts, either by candidate marketing or by writing job orders. The more interviews you set up, the faster you'll get your production on track.

5. Stay focused. If you wander in too many directions, you'll end up with a Balkanized desk, comprised of disparate candidate and company populations that have no common language. The trick to desk specialty management is to keep your nose to the scent of new business, without taking too many forks in the road.

Bear in mind that the fundamentals of the business will remain constant, even if you switch your desk specialty. If your technique is sound, you'll make progress quickly, provided there's business to be found in your new area of interest.

However, you might want to brush up on (or rehearse) your marketing presentations and recruiting calls before you start making calls to new prospects. Your seniority in the old specialty may have masked weaknesses in technique, and if you're starting fresh, you'll want to make a good first impression, even if you have many years of recruiting under your belt.

Bill Radin is a top-producing recruiter whose innovative books, tapes, CDs and training seminars have helped thousands of recruiting professionals and search consultants achieve peak performance and career satisfaction. Please visit Bill online at www.billradin.com.

Google to lay off 100 full-time recruiters!

2009-01-16T15:25:00.005+08:00

Amidst all the fresh news of gloom and doom around the world and the enevitiable end result of job losses in the form of lay offs and retrenchment happening almost every day I just could not stop myself from mentioning Google specifically.

And thats because I've always been a big fan of Google and their innovative approach to anything they embark upon including their stringent and out-of-the-box recruitment process.

Having said that it was rather dissapointing to know of Google laying off 100 full-time employees that too their recruiters!

Google is known to have one of the most profitable business model and a mean reputation of technology industry's most resilient companies and that raise a question in my mind.

When such entity like Google are necessitated to resort to laying off workers, who else can remain isolated and safe from being layed off?

***

Top 10 Worst Tech Predictions Of All Time

2008-12-12T16:03:00.000+08:00

1. The iPod will never take off.
:: Sir Alan Sugar in 2005

2. No need for a computer in the home.
:: Ken Olsen, founder of Digital Equipment Corp in 1977

3. Nuclear-powered vacuum cleaners will probably be a reality within 10 years.
:: Sir Alan Sugar in 2005

4. TV won't last because people will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.
:: Sir Alan Sugar in 2005

5. After the first flight of the Boeing 247, a plane that could hold 10 people: There will bever be a bigger plane built.
:: Proud Boeing engineer in 1933

6. We stand on the threshold of rocket mail.
:: US postmaster-general Arthur Summerfield in 1959

7. Nobody would ever need more than 640KB of memory on their personal computer.
:: Bill Gates in 1981, allegedly

8. The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys.
:: Sir William Preece, chief engineer of the British Post Office in 1878.

9. Spam will be solved.
:: Bill Gates in 2004

10. X-rays will proved to be a hoax.
:: Lord Kelvin, president of the Royal Society, in 1883.

Singapore Recruiter roundtable debates – November’08

2008-11-27T13:31:00.000+08:00

Recruiter Roundtable Debates is organised by eFinancialCareers.Sg and attended by senior internal recruiters from several of Singapore’s leading financial institutions.

Some of the key issues and findings emerging from this week’s discussion are –

Both Employers and candidates becoming more cautious in the wake of the global financial crisis
Job market remains in comparatively good shape and is still attracting foreign talent
Hiring levels are found to be generally lower than last year but no savage job cuts like NY or London
Growth sectors – risk, audit and compliance
Strong demand for advisory and relationship manager roles in Private Banking
In-house HR/recruitment teams are increasingly placing emphasis on internal recruitment strategies and reducing reliance on agencies.

***Happy hunting folks***

Impact of Recession on Search Firms – Singapore context

2008-11-21T09:31:00.006+08:00

Disclaimer: This is a personal weblog. The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer - Joe Neitham

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Economic slow down, Financial Tsunami, down turn, recession, call it what you like but we seems to be heading for a definite period of persistent rise in uncertainties in the days ahead. We are experiencing what some would even call the worst recession since the Great Depression and the similarities between the Great Depression and the current recession aka Credit Crunch recession are very similar. Much like the credit crunch today, the Great Depression began with a stock market crash and the eventual meltdown of the financial system. The bad news for us is that the current recession is not over yet by anyone’s imagination and the longer the recession prolonged the closer we are to a state of deep and painful depression.

From recruitment perspective, recession does have direct consequences on recruitment plans and the severity of the recession dictates the surge or decline in recruitment activities. We are today probably experiencing the half way point of recession as it is expected to prolong till 2013 as seen from surveys around the globe.

As such, measures taken by different organisation across varied industry, in preparation for the bad times to come, ranges from the mild to the drastic – pay cut, hiring freeze, lay offs and retrenchment are the buzz words today.

Here at home in Singapore we’ve seen and heard of organisation such as CLSA resorting to pay cuts in order to avoid retrenching their staff and in most financial institutions we are seeing hiring freeze (at least in most part of the business) as the norm of the day such as JPMorgan, Credit Suisse, Standard Chartered Bank, etc. Retrenchment as the last resort is underway at DBS (Nov 14, 2008 The Straits Times), Citibank (Nov 19, 2008 Biz Times), HSBC (Wall Street Journal - Nov 17, 2008), Merrill Lynch (Oct 22, 2008 The Straits Times), UBS (Oct 22, 2008 The Straits Times), Standard Chartered Bank (Oct 29, 2008 The Straits Times). I have a feeling that we’ve not seen the last of such retrenchment activities in the banks as mentioned above and some of these banks will continue the next round of lay offs soon if not in the immediate future.

Outside of banks, some of the organisation that has taken lay offs route are Motorola, Nokia, GAP, NOL, AIA, IM Flash Tech., YKK, Allied Technologies Ltd. The list is expected to grow as many organisation need to resort to trimming their staff strength in order to sustain.

In the midst of all the doom and glooms around it is still heartening to know that organisations here such as Singtel and NTUC are declaring not to resort to lay offs, while banks like Barclays, Standard Chartered bank, and ANZ are still hiring actively if not aggressively.

Types of search firms

The past few days I’ve been meeting up with few recruitment consultants and I guess their interpretation of the current recruitment scene varies from one to the other and that’s purely because of the space in which they operate. Typically we have the following types of search firms here in Singapore –

Executive Search Firms: These are the true search firms where they only take on retained search. Typical search firm will have a strong Research team with strong market mapping capabilities and they do not have any particular industry that they limit themselves to but on roles – only senior management level. Some of the leading search firms in Singapore are -
· Egon Zehnder

· Spencer Stuart
· Amrop Hever Group
· Heidrick & Struggles
· Russell Reynolds

Recruitment Consulting Firms (Hybrid – Contingency/Retainer): These are firms that are strong on contingency however most will also take on 10%-20% retainer jobs. Consultants here are strong on end-to-end consulting and 2-5 consultants will share 1-3 researcher (only name generation and market mapping) and in some cases resourcers (Identify and shortlist candidates – email/phone/face-to-face). Focus on middle to senior level candidates. Some of them are -
· Talent2
· Hudson
· Robert Walters
· Derwent
· Korn Ferry

Recruitment Agency (Contingency - Contract/Perm): These are agencies that are typically focused on verticals and most of them are in Information Technology. Traditionally they only do contracting where they outsource engineers to client site and manage their payrolls. Lately, few of these agencies do not wish to miss out on the lucrative contingency business so they have dedicated consultants that only do permanent placements. In such places, often they will have dedicated Sales/Business Development (client facing) team that are supported by strong Resourcers in the back office. Some of the leading agencies are –
· A-IT
· Optimum
· Comtel
· Emerio

Trends in recruitment process

Recruitment Outsourcing:

In the past 2 years alone we have seen a rapid growth in recruitment outsourcing, also known as HRO(Human Resource Outsourcing), RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing), TAM (Talent Acquisition Management), etc and basically to quote the Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association

, "Recruitment Process Outsourcing is when a provider acts as a company's internal recruitment function for a portion or all of its jobs. RPO providers manage the entire recruiting/hiring process from job profiling through the on-boarding of the new hire, including staff, technology, method and reporting. A properly managed RPO will improve a company's time to hire, increase the quality of the candidate pool, provide verifiable metrics, reduce cost and improve governmental compliance.”

Some of the organisation that are outsourcing their recruitment functions in Singapore are –
· Credit Suisse to Alexander Mann Solutions
· Barclays to Resource Solutions/Robert Walters -
· Deutsche bank to Alexander Mann Solutions
· UBS to Talent2
· Merrill Lynch to Talent2

Corporate/In-house Recruiters:
For sometime now we’ve had HR folks taking on recruitment as a sub function and unfortunately these does not work well when you are recruiting in volumes. Some of the banks in Singapore that are increasingly relying on in-house recruiters are – ANZ, JPMorgan, Standard Chartered Bank, RBS, etc. Most of these in-house recruiters are from search background with many years of end-to-end recruitment experience under their belts. Obviously, they know what they are doing and they will definitely give some their vendors a run for their money.

Talent management solutions:
Most of the big banks here these days have implemented Talent management solutions in the recruitment process. Some of the leading solutions that are in used here are -

· Taleo (Clients: ANZ, Credit Suisse, JPMC),

· Brassring (Client: UBS),

· Recruitmax (Client: Barclays),

· JobsDB Dimension (Client: SCB).

Preferred Supplier Panel:

Gone are the days when banks will utilise the services of any and every recruitment firms out there. These days’ banks are more selective with whom they want to associate themselves and whose service they would like to avail. Thus was born the Preferred Supplier List or Panel, where out of maybe 70-90 firms only 10-20 are short listed to be included in the panel. Every in-house recruiter as well as the hiring managers is generally mandate to only use those agencies that are in the list.

Banks that uses Talent Management Solutions invariably will have their preferred supplier list and the system will not allow you to submit resumes if you are not in the panel as a registered user.

The future of recruitment industry

As more and more organisation engage on developing their own in-house resource capabilities their focus then will be to hire directly and reduce dependencies on headhunters/recruitment agencies in the long run. Today many in-house recruiters are well equipped and trained on direct sourcing through different mediums for both active and passive candidates – Networking tools(LinkedIn, Facebook, Zoominfo etc), Job site Database search (eFinancialcareers, Monster, etc), Googling (using Boolean strings), etc. What this translates to is substantial lost of requirements for recruitment agencies. The future of recruitment industry therefore will be decided by those firms/agencies that are willing to evolve and adapt to the changing demands of the industry. Added to this, recession will result in the number of jobs being drastically reduced and everyone therefore will be forced to fight for the few jobs that are available and survival will very much depend on getting those few available jobs from the client and filling them.

- Agencies will have reduced job sheets: Fewer jobs due to recession and those that remains most of them will be filled by in-house recruiters. Only hard-to-fill niche or senior roles will be given to agencies.
- Agency to focus on building strong search capabilities: To fill those hard-to-fill niche or senior roles agencies must equip themselves with strong search capability to beat the fierce competition and stand out from the rest.
- Smaller/boutique agencies driven out of business: In the interim smaller agencies who are without any serious requirements will be left out, eventually they will have to close shop due to lack of funds. However, those smaller agencies that are focus on contracting with more than 50 contractors will survive at least for the period when the contract still runs.
- Only the big boys with strong capital reserves will survive: The big Recruitment Consulting firms with diverse portfolio will survive and ride out this rough patch as they are not dependent only on few particular clients in particular industry/sector.
- Strong relationship + strong delivery capability will thrive: In the end, it all boils down to the depth of ones relationship with clients because relationship will help in requirements coming to you. However, relationship alone does not suffice and what will set a survivor apart from the rest will be the strength in their delivery capability – high percentage of successful job filled against number of jobs.

Is your firm geared up and prepared for the long haul and ready to ride out the recession? What plans of actions are being put in place not only to survive but excel in these challenging times?

Should the negative trends continue for the next two quarters number of consultants will find themselves in the deficit from which recovery will be a difficult task. I believe that this will eventually result in many consultants losing their jobs sometime during the end of 2nd and beginning of 3rd quarter of 2009 and many cowboy agencies will also be force out of business. So how each companies responds to these new economic conditions will ultimately “separate the wheat from the chaff”.

On the bright side, experience and big billing consultants will not only survive but continue to do well and for them pots of gold waits at the rainbow’s end and this is what we know as “survival of the fittest”.

PS: Feel free to share with everyone your thoughts and take on this topic by leaving your comments here or you may write in to me confidentially at neitham(at)gmail(dot)com.

***Happy hunting folks***

Top 50 HR Blogs

2008-11-13T11:41:00.000+08:00

Very excited that I was included in the Top 50 HR Blogs as published by BSchool.com Business Schools Directory (Campus and Online MBA Degrees) - what a great honour.

The top 8 Recruitment Blogs that made it to the list are as follows:

Cheezhead. This popular recruitment blog offers a main course of recruitment issues with a nice side dish of other HR topics.

Recruiting Fly. From applicant tracking systems to specific corporate job opportunities, this blog covers the latest news in recruiting.

Magic Pot of Jobs. These IT recruiters have put together a blog to help job searchers know what steps to take to give themselves the best advantage when it comes to landing the interview and the job.

Recruiting Animal. This collaborative blog, an extension of The Recruiting Animal Show, offers posts with timely topics that relate to the world of recruiting.

Amitai Givertz’s Recruitomatic Blog. This recruiting specialist shares his expertise through original blog posts including topics offering recruiting help as well as news about the recruiting industry.

Research Goddess. Get the latest news from the recruitment world brought to you in the posts at this blog.

A Recruiter Diary. This IT recruiter shares his knowledge with news and tips collected from several sources.

Recruiter Guy Blog. Stay on top of recruiting trends with information about what recruiters are using and what job-seekers find helpful with this fun and flashy blog.

*** Happy hunting folks***

Robert Walters Asia Job Index Q3 2008

2008-11-05T16:33:00.000+08:00

SEASONALITY AND THE CREDIT CRUNCH HIT ADVERTISING VOLUMES.

Robert Walters, the international recruitment consultancy, today publishes its Asia Job Index for the third quarter of 2008. The Robert Walters Asia Job Index tracks advertisement volumes for professional positions across the leading job boards and national newspapers in Hong Kong and Singapore.

KEY FINDINGS:

Total job advertisements posted in Hong Kong in Q3 2008 8.5% lower than Q2 2008
Total job advertisements posted in Singapore in Q3 2008 10.2% lower than Q2 2008
Reduced advertising spend a direct result of a focus on cost management across many sectors
Increasing prevalence of contract hiring
Emphasis on recruitment of sales-focused candidates who will aggressively drive revenues
IT personnel continue to be in strong demand with Singapore businesses in particular continuing to implement complex IT projects
Organisations of all types still strongly committed to growing operations in Asia-Pacific region

Mark Ellwood, Managing Director at Robert Walters in Singapore, comments: "The Singapore economy has so far held up relatively well year to date in light of the global economic challenges. However, it was the first Asian country to announce it is in a technical recession so it is no surprise to see a reduction in the number of jobs advertised in the 3rd quarter. Despite this, there is still demand for high quality candidates as good talent is always hard to find. The financial services sector has certainly been affected and organizations are focusing on costs which will continue into next year but opportunities for talented middle management professionals will still remain."

Firms hiring continues despite potential recession

2008-11-05T16:02:00.000+08:00

Companies in Singapore are not putting their hiring plans on hold despite recession threats. According to the Achieve Report on Hiring Trends 2H 2008, 76% of employers did not expect a change in hiring activity in the wake of the recession. Of the 24% of respondents who foresaw a change in hiring activity, 11% stated they would reduce hiring, 10% would freeze employment and 3% would retrench workers. Among the sectors, the retail, hospitality and finance industries were the most confident about the potential recession.

The good news is that 73% of finance firms planned to stick to their intended hiring plans.

Want to be a Big Biller? One minute ideas

2008-09-24T15:08:00.001+08:00

Recruitment big billers are perceived by the humble recruiter to be something that they could never be! The fact of the matter is that they just have a different mind set. There are no obstacles to success in their minds, they are also willing to ask for the business rather than be cap in hand and are able (and willing) to follow, repeatedly, the same process time and time again without question - because it works....

If you are a newbie or average recruiter in terms of billings, accept that being a recruiter is a process driven business which requires discipline and focus, not cutting corners of a proven system or continuous non productive distractions.

If you can achieve this you will be on the road to becoming one of the recruitment industry's Big or even Super Billers!

Source: Want to be a Big Biller? Learn from top recruiters!

Turmoil in the financial industry - Round up!

2008-09-17T18:10:00.000+08:00

The sub-prime mortgage crisis and its affect on the global market have never been seen at such a proportion, perhaps but for the great depression.

The exposure to the credit crunch which started last year and was felt by most leading investment banks notably UBS and Bear Stearns ripples across the globe and is still felt till this week but more in the shape of a tsunami now.

The latest being Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch which over the weekend became the next high profile scalps. Bear Stearns was the first billion-dollar casualty which was bought out by JPMorgan with the US Federal Reserve’s intervention.

Prior to that we had Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, who collectively controls $5 trillion in mortgages, had to be bailed out by the long-suffering US taxpayer.

On Sept. 14, 2008, Merrill announced that it had agreed to be purchased by the Bank of America, rather than run the risk of being pulled under by turmoil surrounding the industry.

Merrill's logo -- a bull -- had long symbolized the fundamental optimism of Wall Street, and its leaders had often been viewed as spokesman for the entire industry. And folks in the street corner and in the office lifts are amazed and stunned that an institution of the size of Merrill Lynch (founded in 1914) could end in such a situation! Just for a minute ponder on this fact that we are never going to have Merrill Lynch again!

Over the weekend, Lehman Brothers, a major American investment banker, has filed paperwork for bankruptcy. It would be the largest collapse of an investment firm in 18 years. Lehman attempted to find a buyer over the weekend but it met with no success.

The latest development is that BARCLAYS has finalised the acquisition of Lehman Brothers' investment banking and capital markets businesses in the US for $2.2 billion.

Goldman Sachs so far has navigated the turmoil better than its peers, avoiding big write-downs. Yet Goldman Sachs reported a 70 per cent plunge in quarterly profit and I am wondering if it will be too preposterous to declare that GS is the potential next in line?

For me, the worst was the fate of AIG as I find it difficult to imagine if the largest insurance company in the world was to collapse? Most importantly who all will it drag along to her grave? Fortunately, the US Federal Reserve gave them a lifeline with an offer of $85 bln and thus preventing what would have been the biggest scalp over the sub-prime fallout!

Nearer at home, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) joined its global counterparts in acting to reassure jittery markets by declaring that it was prepared to inject additional liquidity if the situation so warrants. It is also heartening to note that all the three local banks, DBS, OCBC and UOB have insignificant exposures.

My worry is, for how much longer can we remain an island shielded from the sub-prime crisis and does the ripple affects that we are experience now became a big wave and hit us like a Tsunami? Do we have alternate and contingency plans should such a drastic fate befalls us? Are we prepared? “Que sera, sera, What will be, will be.”

- by Joe Neitham, 6:15PM, 17th Sept, 2008

Lehman in talks to sell!

2008-09-12T10:16:00.000+08:00

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc was forced into talks about a possible sale after the Wall Street investment bank's shares plunged more than 40 percent on Thursday, raising questions about its survival.

Lehman and U.S. regulators were in intensive discussions about a number of options, including a complete sale, but the firm was resisting government intervention, a source with direct knowledge of the talks said.

Even so, media reports said the government, including the Federal Reserve, was helping to broker a deal to sell Lehman that could be completed as soon as this weekend.

The U.S. government is hoping to avoid spending money on a bailout, a source with direct knowledge of the situation said.

Bank of America Corp or Barclays could be suitors, according to various reports. Bank of America, Barclays and Lehman declined to comment.

Lehman stock closed down $3.03 at $4.22, and traded as low as $3.20 in after-hours trading. The shares have lost more than three-quarters of their value since Monday and more than 90 percent since they hit a 52-week high of $67.73 last November.

Source: Reuters

Asian Talent Conference Announces Inaugural Talent Management Conference in Singapore

2008-08-18T21:09:00.001+08:00

[PRESS RELEASE]

Conference speakers to share trends, insights and best practices to help organisations find, motivate and keep their best people

SINGAPORE, August 18, 2008 – Asian Talent Conference (ATC), an exciting new collaboration between the leading corporate recruitment and talent management experts from Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, announces the launch of their first ever human resources conference organised in Asia, themed “Finding the future: fresh new ways to source, develop and retain talent” which will be held from August 20-22, at Grand Copthorne, Waterfront Hotel Singapore.

The 2008 Asian Talent Management Conference has been designed to give attendees the knowledge and skills needed to ensure that their talent strategy is well aligned with their organisation’s business goals and objectives. At the conference, attendees will also gain insights into the future of HR, emerging trends, technologies and practices that are making organisations more successful and more profitable.

“Talent is THE challenge of this century and it will become more and more difficult to find, attract, hire and retain the people that organisations need for success,” said Trevor Vas, chairman of Asian Talent Conference. “Thus the HR function is becoming increasing critical and this conference will provide attendees with opportunities to gain insights on how leading firms are overcoming the talent challenges faced. “

Keynote speakers at the conference will include Miranda Rivers, Extras Casting Director of Lord of the Rings & King Kong; Sanjay Singh, Vice President of Human Resources, Whirlpool; Christine Deputy, Vice President, Partner Resources for Starbucks Coffee Asia Pacific; and K.A. Chang, Executive Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer, Singapore Exchange Ltd.

Prior to the conference, attendees can take an optional master class that addresses the topic of “Sourcing for Critical Candidates”. Presented by Shally Steckerl, the world’s foremost expert in online candidate sourcing, this is a one-day, practical workshop for all levels of Recruitment Consultants and Managers, designed and delivered by a team of experts renowned for their innovation and skill in the strategic application of online recruitment tools and breakthrough strategies.

Programme details and registration information are available at http://www.atcevent.com/sg.

[Note to editors: Members of the media are welcome to attend the sessions at no cost; please contact Julia Lai at 6303 8461 (desk) or 96382284 (mobile) to register]

End -

Sourcing of Critical Candidates - Masterclass (Singapore)

2008-08-06T14:09:00.000+08:00

Singapore - we are indeed fortunate that Shally Steckerl, the Chief CyberSleuth of Job Machine and the world's foremost expert in sourcing candidates will be here in our shore for the inaugural Asian Talent Conference between the 20th - 2nd August, 2008. During this conference, Shally for the first time ever in Singapore will be conducting a one day only Sourcing of Critical Candidates - Masterclass . Shally will be supported by the likes of Kevin Wheeler - celebrity author and keynote public speaker on talent management and Trevor Vas and Martin Warren from down under.

They will be here to answer questions such as:

How can I source quality candidates?
What are the most advanced and effective sourcing methods?
How can I optimise my sourcing time?
How do I identify and connect to quality candidates?

To join the Australasian Talent Conference in Singapore please visit -http://www.atcevent.com/sg

Wages for IT talent go up, up, up!

2008-08-06T14:03:00.000+08:00

Singapore - With the banking and finance sector fuelling demand for talent, IT professionals can command a higher pay if they choose to job hop now.

Richard Talbot, GM of the IT recruitment firm, Sapphire Technologies, says with a low 2% unemployment rate and a shortage of skilled workers, there is a pressure on companies to increase the wages of IT workers.

Similarly, Watson Wyatt's quarterly HR Trends survey showed that IT sector had a 5.4% salary adjustment in 2008, cpmpared to 4.8% for general industries. This ranks the IT industry as one of the top 4 industries, payewise.

Singapore tops for expat living

2008-07-25T17:07:00.000+08:00

Singapore had been ranked the best place to live in the world by expats in one of the biggeset international surveys of expatriate living ever conducted.

The Expat Explorer survey for HSBC Bank International found that as well as coming out tops overall, expats rated Singapore best for quality of accomodation and second in terms of luxury living.

Hong Kong, ranked fifth, scoring high for earnings and savings. In fact, Hong Kong based expats were found to have the highest salaries in the world, with almost half earning more than GBP100,000 ($269,800) a year.

The top courntries for savings included Singapore, alongside the UAE and India.

source: TODAY

Singapore: Hiring slows down in second quarter

2008-07-21T14:56:00.000+08:00

21/July/2008

HIRING by Singapore companies is slowing down as firms tighten their belts amid rising operating costs and margin pressure, say recruitment agencies.

This cautious approach is in stark contrast to the enthusiastic hiring seen a year ago and experts say the pullback is most evident in the finance and manufacturing sectors.

'Companies in general have become more conscious of their fixed costs,' said Robert Half International managing director Tim Hird.

'We have observed that our clients have become more selective and more cautious in their hiring, rather than imposing total freezes on hiring altogether,' he said.

The sector identified by recruiting firms as having suffered the biggest slide in hiring is investment banking.

But there are pockets of growth within the financial services sector - commodity houses, insurance firms, private equity firms and hedge funds - that are 'still hiring strongly', Mr Hird pointed out.

Another affected sector is information technology (IT), which has seen a 20 per cent fall in hiring.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

Highly skilled IT professionals, but paid enough?

2008-07-14T10:01:00.001+08:00

ZDNet Asia conducted a survey on the Internet between late-2007 and early-2008, to gain insights into Asia's IT workforce and salary trends.

The survey drew 21,635 respondents from various industry sectors such as government, healthcare, IT, services, telecommunications, legal and finance, and across seven Asian economies: Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

Findings from the ZDNet Asia IT Salary Benchmark Survey 2008 reveal an IT field that is dynamic and has high skill sets, with salaries that are, in most cases, attractive. The survey indicates that IT remains a desirable and interesting profession, and one that has much to offer its practitioners and those who employ them.

The best-paying IT jobs are in Hong Kong, followed by Singapore and Thailand.

The study found that IT professionals from Hong Kong had the highest overall average annual salary at US$57,303. Singapore came next at US$44,858, followed by Thailand, where respondents had an overall average salary of US$24,108 per annum.

On average, Hong Kong respondents had 8.9 years of experience--the highest across the seven countries. They are followed by Thailand's respondents who have an average 8.8 years of experience, ahead of Singapore's 7.5 years.

Hiring sluggish for foreign private banks

2008-06-24T11:19:00.000+08:00

Recruitment among foreign private banks in Singapore has slowed down considerably. Speaking at the launch of its newly renovated office, Olivier Denis, head of OCBC's private banking unit said that one reason for the slowdown in hiring could be market instability, but bankers also realised that clients were unwilling to shift their money from one bank to another too often.

"Has the market slowed down in terms of active recruitments? I think it has, yes. This business is about long-term relationships. If you jump as a relationship manager every two years, you start from scratch all over again," he said.

Senior Linux Administrator

2008-06-20T10:27:00.000+08:00

* Leading global Investment Bank
* Excellent environment and culture
* Excellent salary

This role is within the UNIX Server Team in and responsible for maintaining a stable UNIX environment to support front and back investment bank activities. The incumbent will be responsible for providing installation and day to day support for technology products and applications.

Requirements:
* Advanced Linux System Administration skills including experience with Solaris, SUSe, Veritas Clustering (VCS), EMC storage and NAS storage.
* Previous experience with Unix support in Financial Services/Trading environment preferable.
* Alteast 4 years of experience in OS: Linux

For more details please contact Joe at joe.neitham@talent2.com and/or +6565118547.

Recruitment Manager-Mumbai|Managed Services|Investment Bank

2008-05-21T11:49:00.000+08:00

This leading European Investment Bank with huge operation in India is presently conducting an international search for Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) with overseas recruitment experience, preferably in matured markets like UK, US, Australia and Singapore, to lead and build a recruitment team in Bombay, India.

The ideal candidate should have experience recruiting for front to back office positions for investment banking, private banking and global markets. Those with recruitment experience and prior industry experience working in an investment bank will be at an advantage.

Requirements:
* Ability to strategies with team as well as liaising with respective line managers/stake holders
* Experience in end to end recruitment as well as managing operations
* Experience in manpower planning and delivering solutions
* Leadership qualities to influence, implement and direct the team

The position can grow to Account Director in a year or two and the client is prepared to pay a very attractive salary around 110K USD.

For those interested in finding out more details please feel free to drop me a line - neitham(at)gmail(dot)com or buzz me at +6598573124.

Vacancies this week | 13th May'08

2008-05-13T14:46:00.001+08:00

Vacancy 1: Front Office Developers (C++)
Client - leading financial institution with huge regional presence here in Singapore.
Requirement - 5 years+ technical experience coupled with 2 year+ business experience within equity derivatives.
Skills - C++ & Oracle (PL/SQL) development skills

If interested or know of anyone please write into joe.neitham@talent2.com or for details please follow this link.

Vacancy 2: Back Office Developers (C++)
Client - leading financial institution with huge regional presence here in Singapore.
Requirement - 5 years+ technical experience coupled with 1 year+ business experience IB back office.
Skills - C++ & Oracle (PL/SQL) development skills.

If interested or know of anyone please write into joe.neitham@talent2.com or for details please follow this link.

Vacancy 3: Business Analyst
Client - multiple vacancies with IB clients.
Requirement - 5 years+ BA experience in Cash Equities OR Equity Derivatives.

If interested or know of anyone please write into joe.neitham@talent2.com

Stanchart goes on hiring spree | S'Pore

2008-05-12T14:26:00.000+08:00

Bank swims against the tide; plans to recruit another 500 in S'pore and 10,000 worldwide

While banks in the US and Europe are making announcements - almost on a daily basis - about job cuts and writedowns, Standard Chartered stands quietly poised to grab any talent that may come its way.

As its peers downsize, Stanchart will hire aggressively, especially in Asia. The bank has decided to swim against the general tide of gloom and feels this is the time to grow.

The bank derives most of its profits from Asia, Africa and the Middle East and has escaped relatively unscathed from the sub-prime fallout. It is well-positioned to expand, it said.

A Stanchart spokeswoman told BT yesterday that its Singapore operations will be expanding by nearly 11 per cent in 2008 alone. Some 500 people will be hired in Singapore across the consumer and wholesale banking and support functions, mainly in sales and risk management positions. The bank employs some 4,700 people in Singapore.

In all, the bank will be hiring 10,000 staff this year, across the world according to Richard Meddings, Stanchart's group finance director.

The biggest hiring spree will be in India where the bank plans to recruit another 3,000 people. Another 1,500 will be hired in China, 500 in Hong Kong, 400 in Pakistan, while the remaining 4,100 will be spread across different geographies. The bank's consumer banking business will see the biggest expansion staff-wise. More than half of the new hires - 6,000 people - will be recruited for this segment, while 1,000 will add to the wholesale banking staff. The remaining 3,000 hires will be slotted in support functions like risk, finance, operations, and technology.
'We are well-positioned for growth and are investing in people to leverage on the opportunities in the market,' said the Stanchart spokeswoman.

'We have been very successful in supporting this growth in Singapore due to our ability to attract, engage and develop talent across our markets,' she added. The bank on Wednesday said it had writedowns of US$97 million on its asset-backed securities portfolio for the first quarter. Another US$156 million charge was made to reflect losses arising from the change in the fair value of its available-for-sale reserves. The bank reported writedowns of US$300 million for 2007 on the value of of some of its its asset-backed securities.

All this, however, paled in comparison with the bank's profits before tax of US$4.04 billion for 2007.

This compares to other banks which have been beset with losses from their investments in collateralised debt obligations (CDOs). Swiss bank UBS AG, reported a net loss of 11.5 billion Swiss francs (S$15 billion) for its first quarter on the back of writedowns of US$19 billion. UBS is cutting 5,500 jobs globally, on top of 1,500 already earlier announced.

Citi reported a straight quarterly loss of US$5.11 billion , undone by more than US$15 billion in writedowns and increased reserves for credit losses. The US financial giant announced the slashing of 9,000 more jobs, in addition to the 4,200 job cuts already reported in January.

Source: Business Times

5 ways to maximize your recruiting efforts

2008-05-12T08:29:00.000+08:00

Simply put, your job is to hire people. But for you to do your job well means you have to hire the right person for the right job. This is where your job gets difficult. Oftentimes, the people that respond to your posting in a newspaper or online aren’t the ideal candidates. These people are cold calling a million other places and put little thought into where they’re actually applying. You need to find the person for the job you’re filling; the right person isn’t going to find you. Consider these five tips on better recruiting:

1. Extend your network. This is a common adage for the job seeker, but it works just as well for the employer. Contact local colleges and universities and speak with their career counselors. This is a great way to tap into a talent pool of young, educated, and eager people just hitting the job market. Career counselors know what type of candidates they have through interviews and are usually excellent judges of talent.

2. Look in-house. If you have a position you need to fill, who better to turn to than someone who already knows what you’re looking? Before advertising a job listing to the public do so internally. A current employee looking to advance in the company will know how the system works and will be more easily trained. It also builds employee morale when you hire within because it makes current employees feel valuable.

3. Look for experience. This sounds like a no-brainer, right? But going for someone who simply graduated from a top college doesn’t always translate into success. Look for people that have performed a similar job to the one you’re looking to fill and have done so successfully. This will make the transition easier and they’ll already know the professional landscape.

4. Advertise your benefits. Given the current economic landscape prospective employees want to know what you’ll give them beyond salary. Sure a competitive salary is crucial, but if you offer comprehensive healthcare then let it be known. Have a free health club? Have a great retirement plan? Sell it.

5. Tap your employee’s networks. Your employees know what type of person fits in the company and they can cut down some of the sifting through of resumes if you ask for their help. Offer a referral bonus and you’ll see your employees step up to the plate with viable candidates. They won’t risk putting forward a candidate if it’s going to reflect badly on them.

This post was contributed by Heather Johnson, who is an industry critic on the subject of how to become a nurse. She invites your feedback at heatherjohnson2323@gmail.com.

Jobs cuts plan by top finance firms!

2008-05-07T08:43:00.000+08:00

Against the sub-prime crisis end of last year most finance firms were announcing and consolidating on their exposures during the 1st quarter of 2008 which eventually culminated to drastic measures which we are beggining to hear and see now - job cuts!

Here are some of the latest developments!

UBS: Swiss investment bank UBS axed 5,500 jobs.

Morgan Stanley : Morgan Stanley is planning another round of layoffs in the coming days - 1,500 jobs.

JPMorgan Chase: Plans to cut jobs to make space for incoming Bear Stearns employees.

RBS: Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is set to cut hundreds of jobs as it pushes ahead with the integration of Dutch bank ABN AMRO's investment bank and slashes headcount in divisions hit by the credit crunch. Expected job cuts - 7000.

Citigroup: Plans to slash about 15,000 jobs.

Goldman Sachs: Plans to cut headcounts eventhough their exposures were light.

Merrill Lynch: ML intends to reduce headcounts by 4000 employees.

Here in Singapore, most managers including those at UBS are very confident that the affect will be minimal as most of the job cuts are in US and UK.

In most banks, it has been observed that the hiring plans are either on hold or delayed and even those that are hiring does requires layers of approvals before the offer could be finally released.

My advice to most candidates that are in touch with me -
if you think your job is safe, hold on to it. Don't bother to look out for greener pastures because there isn't much option at this time.
And for those who are out of job or on the verge of being retrenced, look for opportunities aggresively and take any offers that comes your way. Don't bother to look for some more options before you can decide which one to take because there isn't much option for you to weigh at this time.

***Happy hunting folks!***

Why won’t Singaporeans work abroad?

2008-05-02T17:15:00.000+08:00

I came across this debate conducted by eFinancialcareers and found one of the comments very interesting, it goes like this...

The reason we don't leave is that Singapore is a great place to live and work - summer all year, world's best transport sytsem, no crime, no hassles....when you step out of work you don't have to battle the guns, cold and grumpy people like in New york or London. plus If Sing wasn't so great then why would so many expats want to live here????

Hay Group Global Study Finds 33% of Asian Companies Poised to Freeze Salaries in Preparation for the Slowing Economy

2008-04-08T22:21:00.000+08:00

Singapore, April 2, 2008: The majority of companies in Asia have not fully felt the impact of the current economic events with only 8% of them not confident of hitting their business targets, compared to 16% globally. However, they are bracing themselves to be affected sometime in the near future, according to a new global study released today, which spanned 1,003 companies in 80 countries. According to Hay Group, the global consulting firm that conducted the study, more than 41% of companies in Asia are freezing or considering freezing base salaries.

“Even more alarming, 33% of Asian organizations (compared to 15% globally) reported that they were freezing salaries for all employees,” said Charlotte Park, Managing Director of Reward Information Services, Asia, Hay Group. “Short of layoffs or salary cuts, this is as serious as you can get in terms of sending out distress signals.”

In addition, the study found that 81% of organizations will be freezing or decreasing staffing levels in the near future. That said, when companies were asked about their primary concerns regarding engaging and retaining key employees during challenging economic periods, they identified retaining and motivating their key contributors as their number one concern – 48% of companies indicated that they have either made changes or are making changes to their retention programs for high-performers.

“An analysis of the forecast for next quarter, coupled with the impact of this report, could be the catalyst for much more serious economic measures,” said Park.

Other notable findings include:
 Employer-provided benefits are being put under the microscope, especially when it comes to healthcare – 27% report they have either made changes or are making changes to healthcare benefits.
 21% of respondents indicated that they either have changes implemented or planned for retirement/pension benefits
 44% of respondents indicated that they have changes implemented or planned for training and development programs

How Asian employers stack up globally

In general, employers in Asia are taking a more cautious approach than their global counterparts in preparing for an anticipated economic slowdown: (Table 1).

	Asia	Global
Not confident of meeting business targets for 2008	8%	16%
Considering freezing or are freezing salaries for 2008	33%	15%
Freezing or decreasing headcount in 2008	81%	20%
Making or planning changes to healthcare benefits	27%	34%
Making or planning changes for retirement and pension plans	21%	18%
Making or planning changes for training and development programs	44%	38%

Rosy outlook for Singapore job market in 2008

2008-02-13T22:24:00.001+08:00

Against the backdrop of the US credit crunch and its ripple effect through out most of the financial capitals of the world the outlook of most companies here in Singapore viz-a-viz hiring remains very positive.

The above observation is based on the surveys conducted by various agencies for the 1st quarter of 2008.

As per the Hudson Report Q1 2008, 51% Singapore companies planned to increase their workforce.

The report also goes to say that despite the current credit crunch, the impact is low on recruitment plans across all markets surveyed, including Banking and Finance.

I am sure most of us, at some point or the other was worried about the possibility of US recession having a drastic effect on the market here in Asia. Honestly, I still fear that the US will go into recession and all of us including Singapore will be eventually effected. But after reading what MM Lee has to say on this subject, my fears upto a degree is gone.

Speaking to some 1,200 people at the Tanjong Pagar Lunar New Year dinner on Monday night, Mr Lee said Singapore is at the centre of the world's highest growth region, and is in a period of steady growth. "This is quite remarkable, for it will be the first time that when the American economy slows down and reduce imports from Asia, Asia will not go into recession."

What was remarkable about this great man and his insights was soon evident when he continued to point out that the US recession help the Singapore booming real estate market to cool down and this inturn did not result in Asia going through another financial crisis like the one in 1997.

Most of the banks did not stop hiring in Q4 of 2007 and the hiring trend seems to continue at the same pace in Q1 of 2008 and I am confident that this trend will continue for most part of this year.

This is the year of the rat - a time for renewal, hard work and a fresh start.

Hopefully, all the subprime mortgage crisis and the write downs can all be put behind and everyone will start a fresh and rebuild all that was lost.

This might just be a wishful thinking but I choose to remain positive and think only of good things for the year ahead.

And here's wishing happy hunting and clean closures to all my fellow recruiters in Singapore and across the world!

:: Recruiter 10-Factor Evaluation

2007-12-19T08:59:00.000+08:00

# 1: Delivers Result
- Consistently fills most jobs on time, often with top people. Responsible –
Recruiters must be able to hit their numbers. This means consistently filling all of the reqs assigned to them month-after-month. If the backlog is increasing you have a problem. You can’t be passive.

# 2: Knows the Job
- Has solid understand of real job needs. Confident. Gets clarification –
Good recruiters must know the job, and not rely on the Job Description. Recruiters need to know what the person holding the job needs to do to be considered successful. Otherwise, you’re just guessing and box checking.

# 3: Finds best active candidate
- Strong with basic systems and uses a variety of other good techniques –
Recruiters must be able to find the best active candidates quickly. This means writing great ads, knowing what boards to use, and using all of the latest searching tools to mine through resumes quickly and accurately.

# 4: Finds best less active and passive candidates
- Always obtained good candidates through referrals. Assertive –
If you’re only sourcing candidates, you’re not really a recruiter. Recruiters must be able to build instant networks of top people and convince them to consider your jobs even when they say “no”.

# 5: Manages the process
- Can manage multiple assignments using a variety of tools. Well organized –
Recruiters have too much to do and things always go wrong. Managing all of these issues is a critical skill. Hiring one person is tough enough. Keeping everything moving while staying on top of it all is the essence of an exceptional recruiter.

# 6: Knows the market
- Quite knowledgeable about industry, trends and employment issues –
Recruiters must be on top of all of the issues in their area of expertise. This means knowing compensation ranges, the best places to find top people, and what’s happening in their industry. This is how you convince candidates and clients you’re an expert.

# 7: Influences the hiring decision
- Adds much value. Understands candidates and job needs. Respected –
Recruiters must exert influence on their hiring manager clients at every stage. This means haggling about job requirements, candidate competency, and how to negotiate offers. The best recruiters are involved at each step in the hiring process and push their candidates forward despite differences.

# 8: Influences candidates throughout process
- Provides good advice and is seen by candidate as advocate. Influences –
The best people always have other opportunities. Keeping them involved and interested in your job is the core of recruiting. This means knowing the job and presenting a persuasive case as to why offers should be accepted even if they don’t meet salary expectations.

# 9: Conducts professional and accurate interview
- Uses multiple tools to assess. Solid skills. Pretty accurate. Input valued –
Recruiters must be thorough and competent assessors of talent. This means knowing what questions to ask, interpreting the results correctly, and defending your candidate to the hiring team. You know you’re at the top of your game when you lead panel interviews and the debriefing session.

# 10: Works with the team
- Works well with team to improve process. Takes initiative to help others –
Forget the Lone Ranger stuff. In a corporate environment recruiters must work with a wide variety of people, some not so great. Influencing their decisions and keeping the process moving forward is what teamwork and cooperation is all about.

Source: www.adlerconcepts.com

:: Top 50 recruiting blog!

2007-12-11T10:41:00.000+08:00

I made it to the TOP 50 of TheRecruiting Watch blog community - http://www.recruitingwatch.com/community.

At recruitingwatch.com they are constantly monitoring the top blogs and blog posts on Recruiting.

Do give them a visit and if you find that your favorite blog is not on the list you can recommend it to be included in the list.

:: Is the banking recruitment machine losing its steam?

2007-12-05T08:34:00.000+08:00

Singapore – Private banks in Singapore are easing up on recruitment, in light of the volatile sub-prime market in the US, says the Business Times.

Manager of search firm Robert Walters’ front office banking practice, Gary Lai says, “The banks won't admit this but they are probably not as aggressive as before.”

Having done well in Singapore over the past two years, assets of private banking have increased to an estimation of US$500 (S$725) billion this year, resulting in a shortage of staff.

Another recruitment firm, Kelly Services, said that hiring wouldn’t stop entirely, but “will slow down to some extent over the short to mid term”.

While the sub-prime crisis is one reason for the ease in , with others being steep competition and high costs, say Kelly Services.

A financial advisor has said that for example, UBS have slowed hiring for its trainee programme. It “used to aggressively look for people, asking bankers to see if they knew people interested in it. But that has stopped',” said the source.

And at Citi, “they have even cut things like staff social programmes for gatherings or drinks,” reported an investment strategist.

Mostly in the US and UK where investment banking centres are based, banks have made clear their intentions of downsizing their staff. However, “I would find it unusual if Singapore was not affected”, reported the strategist.

“At banks that will or have cut jobs, if a unit is seen to be aggressively hiring it sends the wrong signal to the rest,” said Robert Walters' Gary Lai.

Joshua Yim, chief executive of JCG Search International said that, banking sectors in Asia are “isolated to a certain degree, but at a big corporate, depending on which bank we're talking about, you can have across-the-board reductions.”

Banks are less aggressive than when they were five months ago, and those affected by the sub-prime crisis are cutting back, he said.

On the other hand, banks and insiders have reported that the hiring slowdown rumours are unfounded, and Citi Private Bank have said that it would continue to grow in double digit percentage terms in the short to medium run. And come 2008, it “will continue to recruit the appropriate talent in order to match our business expansion and growth needs”.

:: Good time for job seekers in S'Pore

2007-11-21T15:48:00.000+08:00

Singapore employers continue to see positive hiring demands in the last quarter of 2007. According to Manpower's Employment Outlook Survey, net employment outlook of +43% showed that employers in Singapore will continue to hire at a vigorous pace.

The survey revealed that 51% out of 759 employers polled expected to hire more [eople during the fourth quarter of 2007. 31% projected no change in hiring intention while 2% expected a decrease in staffing levels.

The finance, insurance and real estate industries reported the strongest hiring activity with a net employment outlook of +70%.

:: General Nature Conservation Groups in Singapore

2007-11-14T13:43:00.000+08:00

General Nature Conservation
Nature Society (Singapore)
SEC Green Volunteer Network
Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research (RMBR) Volunteers, Toddycats!
Eart-H (Joseph Lai)
Simply Green (Dr Chua Ee Kiam)
NParks Ubin Volunteers
NParks CCNR Volunteers
NParks Sunge Buloh Volunteers
Zoo Docents

:: S'pore IT Salary Report by ZDNet Asia

2007-11-06T09:31:00.000+08:00

This ZDNet Asia IT Salary Benchmark 2006 report provides an overview of salary data for several IT positions, including IT Management, Project Development and Systems Development. It also highlights the most popular technical skills and professional certifications.

This 9-page report focuses on Singapore and shows that IT Management positions are at the upper end of the pay scale. Project development ranked second.

The overall average annual salary is highest in Hong Kong at HK$404,144 (US$51,964), followed bySingapore at S$64,943 (US$41,601). Surprisingly, Thailand is in third place with an average annualsalary of THB 994,203 (US$27,044). However, the correspondent base is also smallest in Thailand, therefore some caution is advised when interpreting results.

Overall Average Annual Salary by Country

Country	Local Currency	Average Annual Sal(Local curr.)	Average Annual Salary (in USD)
Hong Kong	HKD	404,144	51,964
Singapore	SGD	64,943	41,601
Thailand	THB	994,203	27,044
Malaysia	MYR	61,278	16,696
India	INR	662,310	14,702
Indonesia	IDR	102,379,052	11,231
Philippines	PHP	536,241	10,730

If you wish to access the complete survey report please Join activeTechPros! Get a salary comparison based on your job title at http://www.activetechpros.com/.

:: S'pore job-seekers demand 10% more than what employers expect to pay

2007-10-18T12:50:00.000+08:00

Is it a case of overblown expectations or just market savvy?

More than in any other country in Asia, job candidates in Singapore tend to demand salaries higher than what employers are willing to pay, said the latest report by human resources firm Hudson.

More than half of the 723 employers from multinational firms in Singapore surveyed said they "often" or "very often" received such demands — the highest proportion of all the Asian markets involved in the study, Japan, Hong Kong and Shanghai included.

Singaporeans are increasingly aware of their value in a market where demand outstrips supply, said Hudson's Singapore country manager Mark Sparrow.

"When Singaporeans look for jobs, they are looking for higher pay, but employers haven't adjusted their expectations yet," he said.

Also, 57 per cent of respondents said Singaporeans are asking for more than 10 per cent above the salary offered — second only to what job-hunters in China are requesting.

While companies here "shouldn't bow down to job candidates", they do need to readjust what they are prepared to pay employees in a competitive market, he said.

by LIN YANQIN
yanqin@mediacorp.com.sg

Learn about Hispanic Recruiting at LatPro.com.

:: Big Biller by Bill Vick & Des Walsh

2007-10-08T08:38:00.000+08:00

For all those serious recruiters who wish to scale the dizzy heights of big billing this great work by Bill Vick & Des Walsh is a great resource. Some good excerpts are given as below. Please register your mail id to receive a sample copy of their work at http://www.bigbiller.org/.

Every industry has its superstars. In the recruiting world we call them the Big Billers. They are the ones who have mastered the art and science of recruiting, the ones who consistently earn far more than most people dream of earning.

Accoring to Paul Hawkinson Big Billers are a special breed: “Some of their traits are: they’re hungry, they’re money-motivated, they’re basically peoplepleasers, they have a purpose. They’re generally intolerant of mediocrity. They’re extremely focused. Whether a searcher, a placer, or contingency, or retained, a lone wolf or a team leader, they have laser like focus. And I have found they are sensitive to gut feelings. Some people are sensitive to gut feelings, some people aren’t".

5 Keys to success:

Attitude – every Big Biller has reached a point where he or she has an unshakeable, winning attitude and relentless persistence.
Focus – every Big Biller has a crystal-clear purpose and a strategy for success.
Control – Big Billers control the process at every step, and are in control of the hirer’s expectations and the candidate’s presentation - nothing is left to chance.
Discipline – every day is planned, routines are followed, the process is respected.
Relationships – Big Billers put customer needs before fees (again and again it was emphasized that recruiting is above all a relationship business).

The 11 commandments for Big Billers:
1 - Thou shall not play games thy cannot win and never forget time kills all deals.
2 - Honor thy self first, the client second, and all others third. Never forget who brought you to the party.
3 - Thou shall plan thy work and work thy plan.
4 - Thou shall remember recruiting is a contact sport.
5 – Thou shall remember building relationships and establishing rapport is an all the time not a sometime thing. The 5 best and proven ways to build relationships are:
1 - Face to Face
2 - The phone
3 - The phone
4 - The phone
5 – e-Mail
6 - Thou shall remember recruiting is a life style, not a sometimes job. If you don't love it don't do it. If you have to lie to win don't do it. If you have to be somebody else from 8:00 to 5:00 don't do it. Always strive for balance in your business, as in your life, and live with integrity and honor.
7 - Thou will follow through and never forget the deal is not done until the check clears.
8 - Thou shall not get seduced by Technology. It is a tool not a crutch.
9 - Thou shall remember when hunting for clients or candidates, as in hunting for elephants, to use a rifle, not a shotgun.
10 - Thou shall not forget Recruiting is a business, not a profession, but to always act and conduct business professionally.
11 - Thou shall not forget the Golden Rule and treat other’s as you want to be treated.

Big Biller Basics © Big Biller Publishing 2006 - www.BigBillerPublishing.com

Find information on Diversity recruiting at DiversityJobs.com.

:: Post them jobs on Wednesday

2007-09-26T14:03:00.000+08:00

An internet job-posting company survey found that the best day to post employment advertisements on the web is Wednesday.

The survey was conducted by eQuest and they counted how many were viewed on a specific days of the week and how many were then clicked through to go to the next step of filling out an application.

While job ads were frequently viewed on Wednesday (18.1%), the report also cliearly confirmed that candidates often search for jobs between Monday (17.5%) and Thursday, with a major drop in acitivity on Friday (12.3%). Saturday and Sunday sees a drop below the 9% mark.

No wonder my first co-branding ad on a Saturday did not received the responses that I quite hope for.

:: My first co-branding job ad | Macquarie

2007-09-24T17:49:00.000+08:00

:: HR Salaries in Singapore

2007-09-20T14:42:00.000+08:00

Singapore economy is booming. All sectors are doing well. Banking and Finance is facing shortage of skilled manpower.

These are very familiar headlines that we’ve been seeing for the past few months here in Singapore.

Not surprising, given the fact that the recruitment space which is the best indicator of how well the various industry is performing is buzzing with business and every one getting a share of the recruitment pie.

Every other day we hear of new search firms/recruitment agencies that are making inroads into Singapore market – some from as far away as Alaska!

We also hear of reports from multinational search firms forecasting huge pay rise across the sectors. The recruiting fraternity too benefits immensely from the resultant effects of the booming economy.

The latest Salary Survey in September 2007 by Profile & Search Selection for Singapore, for both Financial Services and Industry markets combines is indeed very interesting.

Partial report as per the salary survey conducted by Profile Search & Selection.

* Experience is in Years. * B & F - Banking & Finance. C & I - Commerce & Industry

HR SALARIES (ANNUAL) - SINGAPORE

ROLE	Experience	B & F (in S$)	C & I (in S$)
HR Director/Head	10+	220-330	180-250
HR Manager/VP	7-10	150-220	120-180
Asst HR Manager/AVP	5-7	100-140	80-120
HR Biz Partner/Generalist	5-10	100-180	80-150
Com & Ben Head	10+	190-260	160-240
Com & Ben Manager	5-10	120-190	100-160
Head of Resourcing	10+	180-250	170-220
In-house rec Manager	5-7	120-180	100-150
In-house rec Consultant	3-5	80-120	60-100

For more details please go to Profile Search & Selection

:: Top 100 HR bloggers!

2007-09-20T09:53:00.000+08:00

Such a great and new feeling to see myself included amongst such esteemed company in the Top 100 HR bloggers as compiled by Laura Milligan at Bootstrapper.

Here are the list of the top recruitment blogs in alphabetical order.

Amitai Givertz’s Recruitomatic Blog: This recruiting professional reveals some of her best tools for attracting talent.
AmyBeth Hale: Research Goddess!: This fun to read blog is a great resource for connecting you with other HR sites and blogs across the Web.
A Recruiter Diary: Author Joe Neitham shares “the ups and downs, lessons learnt, success stories,” and more in his recruiting blog.
Ask the Recruiter: Post your questions or just browse through other readers’ inquiries to learn more about the recruiting industry.
Cheezhead: Cheezhead is an attractive, popular blog about recruitment trends, with special attention paid to issues unique to working on the Internet.
Confessions of an Executive Restaurant Recruiter: Even if you’re not in the restaurant business, you’ll have a good time reading this blog, which is full of recruiting tales and tips that will leave you hungry for more.
Confessions of a Recruiting Newbie: Follow the author’s journey through a career in HR recruiting.
Cyber Sleuthing: Use this blog to learn the sneakiest tips for using the Web as your main recuritment tool.
Director of Recruiting: Catch up on all the latest “news and views” you need to know as a recruiter.
ERE Expo Blog: The ERE Expo is the principle convention held each year for recruiting professionals. Sign up to attend, check out their blog entries, or preview the event’s schedule.
Expert Recruiter Resource: Don’t miss this blog. Use it to discover a wealth of advice and tips that will help boost your career.
Hire Strategies: Learn about the power of e-recruitment, especially within the retail industry.
IT Recruiting Diary: On this blog, you can read inspirational stories and valuable tips about recruiting.
IT Toolbox Recruitment Blog: The IT Toolbox Recruitment Blog features short but thorough postings with expert advice on the newest recruitment ideas and trends.
The Asia Pacific Headhunter: This blog discusses trends in recruiting, and is a great resource for professionals and job searchers alike.

:: Singapore's booming economy creates recored number of jobs

2007-09-19T08:22:00.000+08:00

Singapore's booming economy saw a record growth of 61,900 jobs in the last three months with unemployment at a six-year low of 2.4% in June.

The preliminary findings from Ministry of Manpower (MOM) also found employment growth in all sectors.

Stimulating the job growth is the rapidly expanding economy which exceeded all expectations in the last quarter.

Experts here observed that the economy is steady enough to survive even the weakeding US economy and decreased demand for electronics.

Source: HRM Issue 7.8

Find thousands of Bilingual jobs at LatPro.com.

:: Satyam to double its office space in Singapore

2007-09-13T13:50:00.000+08:00

Indian technology giant Satyam Computer Services will open a new 10,000 sq ft office in Changi Business Park (CBP) next week - a move that will effectively double its current floor space in Singapore.

Satyam's Singapore office, which is the company's regional headquarters servicing the Asia Pacific, Africa and the Middle East, will be well poised to take advantage of this regional push.

Source: The Sraits Times, 13 September 2007.

Visit DiversityJobs.com for information on Diversity in the workplace

:: Singapore job seekers prefer SPH newspapers

2007-09-07T10:28:00.000+08:00

Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) newspapers are the preferred medium for job seekers, according to the Singapore Workforce Survey (SWS) findings.

The SWS shows that 84 ercent of job seekers rely on SPH newspapers for recruitment opportunities.

That is more than double the number that use the Internet - the second most poplular medium - for the same purpose.

In addition, six in 10 of those who use SPH newspapers in their job search said they were eventually offered jobs, compared to 15 percent of those who used the Internet.

Source: The Straits Times, Friday, Sept'7 2007

:: I’m on LinkedIn – Now What??? by Jason Alba

2007-08-24T11:17:00.000+08:00

My pal Jason Alba of the renowned Jibberjobber not only has he succesfully conceived, build and run a networking site but now has also added another feather to his cap by becoming a writer and that too on the hot topic of LinkedIn and titled I’m on LinkedIn – Now What???.

I had the honour of browsing through this book before it goes to the publishing house and I believe that anyone who is serious about networking through LinkedIn must grab a copy of this book by pre-order as the book is slated to be released in September.

If you are a professional interested in advancing your career, increasing your business or expanding your opportunities through relationships, this book is for you. It helps you understand and develop an effective online social networking strategy with LinkedIn.

The reader will walk away with:
an understanding of LinkedIn and why they should use it
a set of best practices and tips to get started and keep moving
an understanding of how LinkedIn fits into their networking and career
strategy

:: The History of Sourcing - Jim Stroud

2007-08-16T10:35:00.000+08:00

Kudos to Jim Stroud, Searchologist for his pathbreaking work on "The History of Sourcing". Generations to come will remember this great work that Jim is trying to accomplish here.

As it is a continual work in progress, any and all contributions are welcome. Simply drop an email to jimstroud@jimstroud.com.

:: Skill shortages remain the major challenge

2007-08-15T14:00:00.000+08:00

Singapore employers see severe shortage of talent and high pay increases as major recruitment challenges for the third quarter in 2007. As per the Hudson Report for Q3, whilst 38% of respondents indicated that the most significant challenge for recruiters was a shortage of the required skills, 22% of those surveyed pointed out that high pay increases was the second most significant challenge facing Singapore employers today.

:: How to prep a candidate - by Lou Adler

2007-08-01T09:41:00.000+08:00

We all know that most hiring managers don't conduct broad-based, evidence-based interviews. Many base their judgments about candidate competency on some combination of first impressions, technical knowledge, academics, and smarts. One sure way to improve your hiring batting average (sendouts/hire) is to prep your candidates to cope with whatever questions or circumstances arise. If you handle the candidate prep well enough, you can also prep your clients without them even knowing it.

Following are some key points you should cover when prepping your candidates:

Step 1: Make sure your candidates know their own strengths and weaknesses. Have your candidates write down their four or five strengths and one or two weaknesses. Have them include a short, one-paragraph example of an accomplishment using each strength. With the weaknesses, have them write up a specific situation where they've turned that weakness into a strength, or have overcome the weakness. As you'll see in the "Universal Answer" below, these examples are critical.

Step 2: Learn the "Universal Answer." Most answers during the interview should be about one to two minutes long. If the candidate talks for more than three minutes, the interviewer loses interest. The candidate is then ranked as boring, long-winded, or too self-centered. If the candidate talks less than a minute, the person is considered superficial, incompetent, or lacking interest. Have your candidates practice their answers using the "Say a Few Words" acronym (SAFW):

S: make an opening Statement

A: Amplify that statement

F: provide a Few examples

W: Wrap it up

Providing the example is the most important part of the exercise. This is the demonstrated proof behind the opening statement. Interviewers will use these examples to form their judgments about candidate competency. Most candidates talk in generalities. Specific examples are much more convincing. For instance, a marketing manager could give a specific example to describe how she launched a new product rather than saying she's strong in advertising and new product promotions.

Step 3: Have candidates prepare write-ups for their two most significant accomplishments. To improve their verbal pitches, also ask your candidates to prepare more detailed write-ups for their two most significant accomplishments. Each of these should be two to three paragraphs in length, but no more than half a page each. One should be an individual accomplishment, and the other a team accomplishment. Make sure they include examples of their strengths in both write-ups. Most candidates get a little nervous in the opening stages of an interview, which can result in temporary forgetfulness. The write-ups will allow for better recall of this important information at these times. They'll also be the basis of the examples in the SAFW response. Have them send you these write-ups so you can check out their written communication skills.

Step 4: During the interview, get your candidates to ask the "Universal Question." Discussions about major accomplishments should dominate the interview session. Since most interviewers don't ask about these naturally, you can have your candidates get them started. To do this, have your candidates ask this question early if they feel the interview is going nowhere, "I don't have a complete understanding of your real job needs. Would you please give me an overview of what the job entails and describe some of the key challenges in the job? Then I can give you some examples of work that I've done that are comparable."

Something like this will allow the candidate to then describe some important related projects she's worked on. Managers generally like candidates who are more forceful and who ask good questions, so make sure your candidate has a list of other insightful questions to ask, such as: "What does the person in this job need to do to be considered successful?" "What's the biggest problem that needs to be addressed right away?" "What types of resources are budgeted already?" "Why is the position open?" "How have you developed your team members?"

Step 5: Ask for the job. At the end of the interview, have your candidate tell the interviewer that she is interested in the job, and would like to know what the next steps are. If the next steps seem evasive or unclear, have her ask the interviewer if her accomplishments seem relevant to the performance requirements of the job. Understanding a potential gap here allows the candidate to fill it in with an example of a related accomplishment. Make sure your candidates do the best job possible of presenting their strengths. Sometimes they have to ask for the job to understand what points they need to get across.

Prepping is important. Well-prepped candidates are more confident and provide more thorough answers. If they know how to give complete answers, they worry less and are able to ask better questions. All of this improves the odds that they will be assessed fairly, especially if the focus of the interview is on detailed discussions about the candidates' major accomplishments.

::Singapore grad's 10 hottest employer of choice

2007-07-23T16:27:00.000+08:00

The top 10 employer brands on campus.

Apple
British Americal Tobacco
Citibank
HSBC
Pico Arts
Proctor & Gamble
Ritz-Carlton Millenia Singapore jointly with
Singapore Civil Service (Including MOM, MOE, ad MOFA)
Standard Chartered Bank
UOB

Source: HRM Singapore

:: Contract jobs in Singapore

2007-07-06T14:02:00.000+08:00

Lately I’ve been observing that the nature of contract employment in Singapore is being discussed and written in some of the media and discussion groups. I’ve decided that I must also join the band wagon and contribute my 2 cents worth here.

Contract jobs in Singapore have been around for a while now and are prevalent in many industries right from construction to IT.

If we are to believe some of the reports that are on print, many professionals takes up contract job this days for more money and for more exposure to different areas, this report to me is full of holes and half truths.

Why I say this is because Singapore unlike Australia, North America and Europe operate the contracting employment in a different manner.

While in those countries contactors are being paid by the hourly and they receive their pays once a week or fortnightly, in Singapore contract staff will be billed on a monthly basis and also paid monthly. Overtime (OT) payment is certainly non-existent here.

And therefore in Singapore contractors does not enjoy such benefits as OT and for the unfortunate few are often even exploited and made to work abusive hours and even on weekends.

So when I hear someone from down under who readily agrees to take up a contract job here, I do take the time to educate them on the nature of contract jobs here. And often, they do realize their mistakes and begin looking for perm jobs.

Contract jobs in Singapore often can and will be accepted by a candidate on grounds such as – someone who is on or was on a contract job, or does not have a perm offer or has no hopes of finding a perm job, or someone who is desperate to find and land and accept any job.

In my experience here in Singapore I am yet to come across a candidate who is on a good perm job and is willing to leave his secured job for a contract one. This is because, a contract job unlike a perm job pays less (agency needs his margin), has limited or is void of any fringe benefits, liable to be relieved from job at a short or no notice, et al.

In most cases a contract employee will not have a sense of belonging wherever he is being outsourced and often is not shown the same respect as would a perm employee receives.

Some agencies will even resort to short-changing contract job seekers with such attitude as – pay him the same salary he is on now or pay him less than what he is drawing now after all he is on a contract job et al.

Contract job in Singapore is definitely not as attractive and will not be acceptable by job seekers with multiple options at hand especially those with good caliber and skills.

:: SourceCon 2007

2007-06-19T21:47:00.000+08:00

This by far is the greatest development in the world of sourcing - SourceCon 2007. This is a conference which will be MC'ed by non other than the legendary Jim Stroud whose video you can watch below.

SourceCon 2007 is a global conference and meant for sourcers and researchers. This conference will be held in Atlanta during 11th - 13th Sept and the list of speakers reads who is who of the recruiting space.

Here are just to name a few of them -
* Jim Stroud - Searchologist
* Amybeth Hale - Research Goddess (Still in training)
* Shally Steckerl - Founder and chief Cybersleuth of www.jobmachine.net
* Glenn Gutmacher - Recruiting Researcher

The Recruiters Lounge - Who is behind SourceCon? from Jim Stroud on Vimeo

:: Singapore recruiting trend '06-07

2007-05-19T12:39:00.000+08:00

In an article published by Online recruiters directory call 'Recruiters in 2007' - a survey report, it was found that for most recruiters the biggest challenge they faced in 2006 was - finding qualified candidates.

This was especially true for the IT sector and most recruiters surveyed echoed the same sentiment and that the market has turned to a candidate driven market and employers were faced with greater demands from hiring perspective.

From what I've seen in Q1 of 2007 the trend seems to be pretty much the same as 2006 but at a much more acute pace.

Today, Singapore market, say unlike 2-3 years back is flooded with mushrooming recruitment firms and the competition for a share of the same pie is developing into a very fascinating affair.

We have the same group of recruiters and resourcers finding and talking to the same group of candidates and at times the same candidate ends up being represented to the same client couple of times.

This definitely does not bode well for both the candidate and the agent. The fight for the same group of talents ultimately resulted in some cases in the candidate holding on to 2 or more offers at the same time.

This truly is the candidate market! And I believe that this trend will continue in the same vein at least for some more years to come and I say this because Singapore is proving itself to be a preferred location to set up and conduct business for many of the employers in Europe and America.

I was talking to a senior recruiter with an Australia based recruiting firm here in Singapore who incidentally is recruiting for a leading bank and he confidently declared -

"Joe, I've market mapped Singapore and I know and have spoken to most of the candidates here and the same goes for India too and I am only sourcing for candidates now from non-traditional and unlikely sources/locations."

He continued to awe me when he nonchalantly declared that he has more than 80 jobs at any given time and he simply does not have the time to do justice to all the requirements and he needs extra hands.

He might have exaggerated a wee bit there but there is more truth in what he commented. Because just after a few days of receiving this great insight I was commanded in no uncertain terms by one of the recruitment manager in a leading European bank-

"We've seen all the candidates there is to see in Singapore and India and we are now focusing our attention on attracting talents from Australia or UK".

And that’s exactly what we got into doing by releasing advertising campaign down under and buying new job boards in London.

Not only do I see shortages of qualified candidates but I also observe an increasing shortage of experience recruiters by the number of calls that I continue to get from headhunters and also by the way I struggle myself to recruit consultants and recourcers for my own organization.

As we continue to operate within many limitations and demands of the market we evolve into being a specialised and effective recruiter and this is necessary in order to stay ahead of competition.

One area that we can all look forward to in the coming days is gaining success in honing our skills in international recruitment and in diversity recruitment.

After all that is what the clients and the market increasingly wants us to be and as a recruiter we have no choice but evolves with the changing times.

*** happy hunting folks***

:: HR directors in Singapore paid double compared to India and China

2007-05-15T11:33:00.000+08:00

HR directors located in South Korea are better off than those in Hong Kong and Singapore, with the highest average base pay of US$175,800 (S$266,137), Mercer’s Global Pay Summary found.

Singapore at US$131,800 lags Hong Kong by US$ 25,000, but beats Japan (US$129,100). Singapore HR director’s average annual base salary is about double of what their counterparts in the booming economies of China (Shanghai) and India are making. HR directors in Shanghai and India are paid US$68,179 and US$55,790 respectively.

The US leads in base salary of HR directors at US$190,000, followed by the UK at US$172,392 and Germany at US$169,032.

:: Talent Plus @ Singapore

2007-05-15T11:16:00.000+08:00

Another addition to the ever growing recruitment space in Singapore, the latest one being Talent Plus (Not related to Talent 2) who recently inaugrated their Singapore office on the 8th of May.

Talent Plus is a premier global human resources consulting firm with over 200 world-class, quality-growth-oriented clients.

Talent Plus’ design is to have a full staff assisting in building Talent-Based OrganizationsSM (TBOSM) from the office in Singapore, deploying them throughout Asia with current clients and others in the region who share an interest in recruiting, selecting, developing and promoting their best.

Talent Plus already have couple of big client that they are servicing from their US office.

My best wishes to Talent Plus for a successful operation here in Singapore.

::Yahoo to grow Singapore hub

2007-05-10T10:05:00.000+08:00

Search engine giant Yahoo plans to "more than double" its workforce in Singapore, which may become the comapny's hub for Asia.

This news comes on the back of the Microsoft + Yahoo merger which had positive influence on Yahoo's share jumping to 17% in the premarket trading while Microsoft slipped to 1.5%. But for many outside observers this merger has a lesser chance of seeing a happy ending due to the sheer size of the two giants and also the cultural and technology differences.

Obviously this merger could not have been even dreamt by many during pre Google emergence, however lately both Micsrosoft and Yahoo have been feeling the heat from Google with Google's aggressive business expansion/strategy.

Microsoft currently trails both Yahoo and Google in the lucrative and growing business of Web search.

The growth of Google still leaves me with awe and admiration and with their increasing portfolio of innovative brand of products both in the market, in the pipepline and in research stage it is no wonder Google is where it is today - Innovation!

:: Google@Singapore

2007-05-04T09:30:00.000+08:00

At long last the enevitiable happened and Google put paid to months of speculation by opening its regional office in Singapore yesterday.

I was approached by a lady from outside Singapore 3 months ago and she wanted me to represent her for job with Google Singapore. I did some research and found that Google at that time was still contemplating and have not decided yet on setting up their regional office here.

To me Google in Singapore was pretty exciting and I am very glad that Google is here today. It does good for Singapore as a whole because this will defintely boost Singapore image as one of the place to set up regional office.

And for some in the recruiting fraternity, it will do wonders on their resume to be able to declare some day that they were instrumental in recruiting for Google in Singapore.

:: Fair Employment Practices in Singapore - guidelines

2007-05-04T08:55:00.000+08:00

The Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices in Singapore is composed of Singapore National Employer Federation (employers' representative), National Trade Union Council (Unions' representative) and Ministry of Manpower (governments' representative).

The alliance has come up with recommendations on how to conduct dismissals and retrenchments as part of the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices. The alliance also produces guidelines in the form of a booklet as part of the fight against discrimination at work place.

Singapore is a multi racial and multi religious contry and comprises of native Chinese, native Malays and native Indians predominantly Tamils. Often, as seen on various media publications workplace discrimination is a phenomenon quite wide spread and does exisit.

Against this back drop the Tripartite Alliance has produced guidelines, which by no means is a legislation but just a recommendation. It is for individual members of the Employer federation or those outside of the Tripartite framework to implement this recommendation.

This is similar with recommendations of the National Wage Council, which is again composed of the three alliances. Salaries, Annual Wage Supplement and Bonuses are to be devised within a certain percentages and thereby protecting both workers and employers alike when economy downturn occurs. This recommendation if practice will protect the employees from retrenchment by having their variable components adjusted and their basic wage protected.

Over the next two years, the Alliance will adopt a concerted, promotional and educational approach to raise awareness and share knowledge on fair employment practices. The Alliance looks forward to the support of all employers, unions and employees in making Singapore a fair and inclusive place to work, contributing to a resilient and dynamic economy.

More details avaiable at www.mom.sg

::Recruiting from non-traditional source

2007-04-18T22:29:00.000+08:00

The poaching of private bankers and a drying pool of good relationship managers have prompted at least one bank to start recruiting older Singaporeans with no experience in banking.

In what is believed to be an industry first, HSBC is now eyeing professionals aged between 38 and 50 years old for its premier banking arm. The Hong Kong-based bank is wooing them on the premise that they know enough people — and have enough life experience — to bring in the money - todayonline.com

I guess this was exactly what the hiring managers at one of the leading investment bank were trying to impress upon us when we were invited to attend a presentation on a new talent management solutions which the bank was implementing.

Recruiting from non-traditional source using non-conventional methods are increasingly becoming more of a reality rather than a fad. This practice however could increasingly find relevance in many industries wherever there is a scarcity of talents.

Take for instance, as most investment banks prepares to move their development and application support to APAC and India the economy of demand-supply will come to play at some point in time. To counter this imbalance hiring managers will be increasingly compel to scout for resources outside of the common pool.

The key here is to “Hire for Attitude and Train for Skills” – this cliché generally does not go wrong.

Some examples which may be applicable within the investment bank are –

Level1 support engineers: Instead of looking for 5-6 years banking IT project experience hire 2-3 years if not fresher with good attitude and communication skills and provide an in-house training on the business domain.Reasoning: Since L1 involves mainly phone and email support one does not require a seasoned software programmer to man the desk.
C/C++ systems programmers: There is a huge shortage of good C/C++ programmers and that’s true even for India. The solution here is to recruit fresh graduates and provide them training for a year or two before putting them onto projects. Reasoning: Instead of relying on a market pool which is drying up it is rather sensible to proactively train fresh minds and incubate them for any eventuality.
Business Analyst(BA): BA’s are breeds apart. Not everyone can be a successful BA. And not many BA’s are available in the market. To excel in this role one must have a combination of good business knowledge and understands full SDLC and at the same time communicate with stake holders and translates business requirements into technical specs, etc. Reasoning: Instead of wasting months trying to find the perfect BA which does not exist, hire someone with good BA experience from industry/domain that is relatively closer and train her on the required business domain.

These are just few examples off the cuff, I am sure options are aplenty if only we, meaning hiring managers are prepared to think outside of their comfort zone and explore the available talent pools around them.

As for us recruiters, we need to progressively partner our clients and manage their expectations at every single stage of the recruitment process and constantly provide our clients with realistic market feedbacks.

This will in turn give them the required time to make necessary changes in their talent management strategies and streamline their effort to the options that are viable and prudent and most of all in line with the current market condition thus allowing them to stay ahead of competition.

*** Happy Hunting folks***

::Two out of five workers in Singapore are foreigners

2007-04-05T09:40:00.000+08:00

Singapore – Two out of every five workers in Singapore are foreigners, according to the latest research by Watson Wyatt.

The survey found that 19% out of the 43% foreigners in the workforce comprised permanent residents. While the poll made no distinction between S-pass holders and employment pass holders, the survey had a total headcount of 80,000, and is said to be “representative of the larger working population in Singapore”.

Out of the 79 companies surveyed, only 14% of companies had a different pay structure for foreigners, with a percentage of premium increase of 10% to 20%.

Source: By Lisa Cheong Human Resources Online

::10 keys to being a successful recruiter

2007-04-01T13:35:00.000+08:00

I. Focus on relationship-building rather than on resumes
In recruiting, who you know is as important as what you know – and the more people who know, like, trust, and respect you, the better the reputation you’ll build for yourself and your company. That reputation will translate, down the road, into more great candidates and successful hires. So cultivate your candidates and your contacts, treat them fairly and courteously, and do good turns for them wherever you can. Base your relationships on sincere good will and long-term cooperation, rather than on short-term gains, and you’ll establish relationships that will benefit you for years to come.

II. Establish a network of top-notch candidates
You won’t find the people you need simply by depending on job boards and resume banks. Instead, build your own network of great candidates, and add to it weekly. Your network will provide you with three essentials: great employees to satisfy your demanding hiring managers, referrals to other stellar candidates, and valuable information when you have questions.

III. Use technology in as many ways as you can
To recruit effectively, one must embrace technology. In today’s recruitment scene the importance of technology cannot be said enough. From drafting JD’s to posting jobs to sourcing, shortlisting and arranging interviews to networking on the internet we can see the use of technology at every stage and sans technology it becomes rather difficult to even imagine, considering the pace of recruitment needs these days.

IV. Understand the need for speed at all levels of the recruiting process
A successful recruiter posts open jobs quickly, begins networking with contacts immediately, schedules phone screens and interviews with top candidates right away, and extends offers to winning candidates without delay. Every day you shave off your hiring process doubles or triples your chances of success.

V. Recruit all the time
There’s no such thing as a 40-hour week in recruiting! Instead, be willing to spend extra time and effort to research where the talent is hiding, and then go there to start building relationships. This means talking to people every where – airplanes, professional events, conferences, you name it. It means hanging out at happy hours, attending charity events, maybe even going to karaoke bars. It also means joining recruiting groups, and using recruiting forums where you can network with others willing to share advice and offer help.

VI. Develop and in-depth understanding of your company and the jobs you need to fill
When you know your stuff, your candidates will see you s smart and savvy – and they’ll get a good impression of your company as well. Develop an extensive knowledge of your company’s (and your competitors’) products and customers, as well as your (and their) strengths and weaknesses.

VII. Get everyone involved in the recruiting process
A successful recruiter enlists hiring managers and other employees in the effort to get jobs filled. How? By encouraging every employee to spread the word about how great the company is, and by educating hiring managers on the current job marketplace, the market value of certain skill sets, and the need to move quickly to capture good employees.

VIII. Measure your efforts
To refine your recruiting efforts, you need to know what’s working and what isn’t. How many positions did you fill last month? What was the time to fill? How many interviews did you conduct? What was your interview-to-hire ration? Use your results to fine-tune your recruiting process and make changes where they’re needed.

IX. Develop strong, sales, marketing, and communication skills
Huge part of recruiting involves marketing your company and your job openings to your candidates, and marketing your candidates to your hiring managers. As such it is very important that one understand the art of sales opening, negotiating and closing.

X. Use multiple recruiting resources
A successful recruiter doesn’t rely on a single source to find the best talent. By combining an in-house database, employee referral programs, outside recruiting agencies, advertising, campus recruiting efforts, and online recruiting, you’ll maximize your recruiting power.

Source: Recruiting & Retaining Employees for Dummies by Jennifer Brugh and Paula Manning

::Cartoon series 1

2007-04-01T00:59:00.000+08:00

"We are never going to reach our recruitment targets if we let a little thing like death get in the way.."
Cartoon source: www.cartoonstock.com

Blogreview: John Chow dot com

2007-03-31T17:58:00.000+08:00

I stumbled upon John's blog while searching for related blogs on SEO. Am glad I found his blog for the simple reason that I consider him a successful blogger, a legend and just reading his blog does encourage me to shed any inhibitions that chain me and gives me the courage to dream.

John Chow dot Com is blog that helps you make money online. It’s a great read and he’ll link to you if you review his blog.

Just to give you an idea as to how successful his blog is try observing the number of comments that he gets for his posts. Its mind boggling, its even humbling.

His blog is all about making money online and he is one of the best in the business. But more importantly he is generous, resourceful and industrious and I say that because he is not afraid to share his knowledge and his success receipe to his readers. That’s the hallmark of a great man!

:: JobWatch | AT&T to add 120 jobs here this year

2007-03-24T00:12:00.000+08:00

Source: TODAY, Friday, March 23, 2007 by Ashraf Safdar

United States telco giant AT&T plans to expand its Singapore capabilities, adding 120 managerial and technical jobs over the next year. Singapore will also become the main service and support hub for the region, offering multilingual, round-the-clock help.

:: Internet sourcing techniques

2007-03-18T21:47:00.000+08:00

Internet recruiting is slowly but surely catching on in this part of the world. Time is not far off when we will have to increasingly employ internet search for finding resumes, but of course this is besides the traditional method of sourcing.

I’ve been doing a bit of research on the net and managed to compile some of the most commonly used techniques for internet recruiting and am glad to share this with you.

Before we try and understand the techniques for internet recruiting let us first understand what are the search engines mostly used by experience recruiters.

Some recommended search engines on the Web:

The search strings for each of these search engines will vary and therefore to maximize your search please do read the tutorials in advance from the respective search engines site.

What techniques to use and when and under what circumstances to use will depend on how well you master each techniques. To achieve optimum success one must also have a fairly good idea about the recruitment industry, the specific job requirement, the key words within the requirement and also differentiate the "mandatory skills" from "good to have skills."

Some of the most common internet search techniques are as given below.

X-RAYING:
A method of looking inside a specific web site to find what's there. Using this technique, recruiters can find documents and web pages that aren't directly accessible via links on the main public home page. When you 'x-ray' a website, you effectively get to examine every document that resides there so long as they are not behind firewalls or password protected.
Example: To find any “software engineer” - could be a document/file or a word/phrase within a document that resides within the website Oracle.com.
In Altavista search - host:oracle.com AND software engineer
In Google search - site:www.oracle.com AND software engineer

FLIPPING:
Flipping is an effective method used to find the relationships between web pages based on how they are hyperlinked together. This search is especially useful for finding people who have links to the company or have worked for a specific company.
Example: To find any “software engineer” – could be a document/file or word/phrase that links back to Oracle.com.
In Altavista search - link:oracle.com AND software engineer
In Google search - link:www.oracle.com AND software engineer

PEELING BACK:
As the name suggest Peeling back is the process of “retracing the path” of the url especially when one gets an Error 404 (File not found). This process is engage so as to locate the information elsewhere on the site or locate the specific “root” folder where one can find similar or additional data specific or related to the search.
Example: By peeling back or keying backspace starting from the point where the url ends we can then access the people link from the ce.uta.edu homepage and find the names of all the faculty members.
url: http://www-ce.uta.edu/people/faculty/hoyos/research.html

HARVESTING OR MINING:
Harvesting involves reviewing a document, such as a resume or home page, and finding key words, links, references and locations that assist with subsequent searches.

SEARCH STRINGS USING BOOLEAN KEYS:
By constructing complex search strings and conducting the search in major search engines one can hone in on the exact information/resources with great accuracy.

Some of the commonly used key words for a search string are given as below.
Common resume Words: Resume, Homepage, CV, Vitae, Bio, Qualifications, Objective, Experience, Education, References, "Work History", "Technical skills", "Project duration"
Common words to avoid: Submit, Opening, Recruiter, Send, Benefits, Requirements, Opportunity, Apply, Job, Jobs, Careers, Eoe, Reply, "my client".

Example on how to construct a complex search strings:
Requirement: A project manager with PMI certification or a 6 Sigma black belt having atleast 5 years of project management within an Investment bank in the areas of Equities connectivity or trading software development. Must have good technical skills in J2EE, EJB, Websphere, XML and DB2.

Search strings credit to – Glenn Gutmacher of Advanced Online Recruiting Techniques

Google:
(intitle:~cv OR inurl:~cv OR intitle:resume OR inurl:resume) "project manager" Java "investment bank" ("equities connectivity" OR trading software) -inurl:~efinancial*
Search result: 87 pages

Yahoo:
(intitle:cv OR inurl:cv OR intitle:resume OR inurl:resume) “project manager” Java "investment bank" "equities connectivity" OR trading software -eoe -opening -post -preferred -reply -send –submit
Search result: 1,740 pages

Live Search:
(intitle:cv inurl:cv intitle:resume inurl:resume) prefer:resume “project manager” Java "investment bank" "equities connectivity" trading software -job -jobs –careers
Search result: 10,038 pages

The search results from the above three searches gives us different amount of results and the task of sieving through the hundreds of pages sounds rather a dauting task. However, the strings above could still be further refined so as to achieve a much more specific results. For example by including SCJP or Sun certification or SDLC, etc I believe one can derived at a much more accurate results.

Caveat:
If you, by applying the techniques as discussed above expects resumes to pop out every time you hit the search button you might end up disappointed and even frustrated. The internet is a storehouse of information and is just an augment to a recruiting process vis-a-vis bigger and better hunting ground and not a complete substitute.

*** Happy hunting folks!***

:: 15 Things You Can Do To Protect the Environment

2007-03-16T13:42:00.000+08:00

Well, this is rather a deviation from what I've normally been posting but I thought this post does deserve an exception to the norm. The subject on environment has always been very close and dear to my heart and the cause for cleaner environment will be what I would always like to pursue, support and advocate. Let us all join hands and make this place a better place to live in..this and the generations to come!

Here's a reprint of the public campaign issue by the Singapore Environment Council (SEC).

The Environment is by far one of the issues most of us take for granted. It's somwhat invisible, intangible and the vastness of it somehow puts people off as to where to start or how their little efforts can do any good. What most of us forget that by being Green/environmentally aware ourselves is only the beginning; we often overlook the need to influence and affect people around us to be aware and lead environmentally mindful lifestyles. We are not asking everyone to become a vegetarian, go around hugging trees or protest against hunting endangered species, the list below is a good start which we think everyone can do...

15 Things You Can Do To Protect the Environment
1. Reduce your driving (walk, bike, ride, take public transport, carpool).Choose a more fuel efficient car.

2. Don't leave your TV, computers, DVD/VCD players on standby; it uses more electricity than the little red LED light!

3. Choose more energy-efficient appliances, especially major ones like refrigerators, aircons and water heaters.

4. Recycle everything you can; newspapers, cans, glass bottles and jars, motor oil, scrap metal, etc.

5. Don't use electrical appliances for things you can easily do by hand, such as opening cans. 6. Plug off your Handphone charger when charging is completed.

7. Re-use bread bags and the bags you bring your produce home in.

8. Store food in re-usable containers, instead of plastic wrap or aluminum foil.

9. Take unwanted, re-usable items to a charitable organization or thrift shop.

10. Don't leave water running needlessly. Save some of your washing machine water. Gargle your mouth with a cup of water instead.

11. Set your aircon temperature to 24-26C instead of below 23C.

12. Turn off the lights, TV, or other electrical appliances when you are out.
13. Fill a 1.5/2L drink plastic bottle and leave it inside the WC; this will save you that same amount every time you flush the toilet.

14. Do not use the water heater on a hot afternoon! Use cold water in the washer whenever possible.

15. Print or copy on both sides of the paper. (pls use the other side of this paper!)

Pls contact Joe Lim at joe@sec.org.sg if you want them to come over to your school/org for a Free green talk; For more info on how you can save money on water and electricity at home, do visit -
http://www.everydaysuperhero.com.sg/
http://www.sec.org.sg

And if you would like to support SEC please click on this image

:: Boom in Singapore IT market – more jobs and higher pay checks!

2007-03-14T09:44:00.000+08:00

As per the survey conducted by Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) - a rebound in the IT market in the later half of the year is expected. This is in line with the survey conducted by Manpower - which conducted a polled recently and found that over 55% of the employers said they would step up hiring in the April-June months.

The Manpower report also found that of all the 27 countries covered in the survey the Net Employment Outlook for Singapore at 53% has the brightest job prospects for the next three months, even outshining India which is at 31%.

Singapore’s economy is set to grow at 5.4 percent this year an increase from the 5.2 percent predicted in the last survey in December.

A certain feeling of positive outlook for a bullish market is felt all around for the year 2007. This ripple effect of the current good economy outlook is being felt especially in the job market.

A new and positive trend is being felt and echoed by most search firms here that 2007 will be a good year for IT boom. As more and more MNCs set up their operation here or augment their staff strength, especially amongst the investment banks, the market definitely is looking good for those who are in banking and finance sector.

According to Roger Olofsson, associate director Robert Walters as quoted in The Straits Times, IT workers can comprise up to 30 percent of the entire staff of a large MNC investment bank.

This is because of the fact that most investment banks in Singapore have segmented a large chunk of their resources to providing support to the existing applications and users and traders spread across the globe. Most of these activities used to be operated out of their office in New York or London or even Zurich.

Robert Walters also reported sharp increases in salaries in Singapore’s tech industry. These increases range from about $10,000 a year for a business solutions architect to about $100,000 a year for a chief information officer, compared to figures in 2003.

The last 2 year has seen a sharp rise in the number of IT workers coming to Singapore to join one of the investment banks here. This influx is also felt very severely in the areas of real estate. Especially in areas like Simei, Tanah Merah, Tampines and even Bedok the rental has grown to 10-30% for both HDB flats and condominiums. These areas are being preferred by many IT workers due to the fact that Changi Business Park (CBP) is situated near Singapore Expo which is at a close proximity to the above addresses.

In fact landlords these days insist on not only increasing the rental but letting out the flat to only those who are willing to sign a lease agreement for a minimum of 2 years. Fast forwarding to 2007, the scene is much worst with the real estate boom which is almost comparable to the economy boom of the early 90’s with expats willing to shell out 4k for a condominium accommodation.

Singapore is truly experiencing what to me is the beginning of good time and for most search firms here the pie is getting bigger and everyone is expected to have a share of the pie; the size and the amount of the pie largely depends on how well you position your organization in identifying and capitalizing on your core strength.

:: IT Resourcer/Recruiter opening!

2007-03-09T16:38:00.000+08:00

Are you comfortable doing the following:

Source for IT candidates on the net, if need be make headhunting calls
Validate resumes that are received through job post or email responses.
Compile long and short list of candidates
Forward the shortlist to the consultants

Do you have most of the stuff as below?

Very good with internet search
Excellent in identifying good resumes and knowing what it is worth
Knows how to exploit the various tools of jobsites such as monster.com and jobs.db
Understands Boolean search strings
Recruitment experience in technologies/domain/areas – Infrastructure, Banking and finance, software product development, SAP, Project management
Good knowledge of Singapore local IT market both for contract and permanent

If you fit the bills as listed above and you love to work in a multinational company along side some cool dudes from successful search firm backgrounds and at the same time have lots of stress-free work life and earn above industry standard pay you might as well write into this id – neitham@gmail.com .
I will then give you a call and perhaps guide you on your way to working for one of the most exciting recruitment company in Singapore, I promise.

:: International Women’s Day – Singapore

2007-03-08T16:12:00.000+08:00

Related site: International Women’s Day

Today is 8th of March, International Women’s Day(IWD). This day is celebrated the world over for the economic, political and social achievements of women.

Here at home in Singapore, the day is celebrated in many places notably - "Active lifestyle" message for International Women's Day celebrations at Raffles place, - Discovery hunt commemorates International Women's Day.

While most women in Singapore celebrate this day, sadly some section of the society still practices the extreme form of women oppression.

I am of course referring to the headline in the Home section of The Straits Times, Thursday, March 8 2007 – “Girls raped by dad seek leniency for mums who aided incest” by Elena Chong. In the report the father who is a religious teacher told his multiple wives and scores of children that according to the Quran a father “owned” his children and this is extended to having sex with his daughters. How gross!

He has in the course of many years of teaching and living with the wives indoctrinate in them and moulds their minds to the extent that the wives believes and are convinced that it is a sin to disobey the head of the household (the father) and it is ok for the father to have sex with any female member of the family.

Hard to believe but sadly the story is true and significantly this story happens to be published in the leading daily news today on the International Women’s Day.

Some other statistics related to women in Singapore –

The ratio of Women to Men in Singapore is 1.07 male(s)/female (15-64 years)

Employment rate (25-64 years) female – 62.6% and male – 89.1%. Statistic source: MOM

7.3% of women are obese compared to 6.4% of men (source: Singapore National Health Survey 2004)

The MiWA index for Singapore is 75.92 for 2007 as compared to New Zealand(89.85) the highest and Malaysia (57.91) the lowest. MiWA – MasterCard MasterIndex of Women’s Advancement is a composite index that measures women’s socio-economic advancements in relation to men.

World Economic Forum(WEF) gender gap study finds that Singapore women get 65.5% of what the men are getting in four areas: economic participation and opportunity; educational attainment; health and survival; and political empowerment.

Average Singapore women earns US$16,489($25,194) per year

Eight out of 10 Singapore women aged 40-49 only had secondary education or lower

Literacy rate: female – 88.6% and male – 96.6%