Singapore banks still hiring, but cautiously, amid current gloom

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

StanChart to boost pool of relationship managers to 300

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 job market shows signs of pick-up!

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

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.

Standard Chartered to hire 100 bankers

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

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.

Executives' pay most affected by downturn

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.

Barclays set to hire in Singapore

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.

Singapore Recruiter roundtable debates – November’08

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***

Robert Walters Asia Job Index Q3 2008

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

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.

Wages for IT talent go up, up, up!

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: Hiring slows down in second quarter

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

Hiring sluggish for foreign private banks

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.

Stanchart goes on hiring spree | S'Pore

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

Jobs cuts plan by top finance firms!

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!***

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

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

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!

:: Is the banking recruitment machine losing its steam?

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

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%.