:: Singapore recruiting trend '06-07

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***

The Hudson report, Q1 2007, Singapore – Employment and HR Trends.

“Employment expectations are rising and companies express a high level of optimism about future performance. But the other side of the coin is severe competition for staff. Companies recognise they must be prepared to look at the ackages they offer which would now include significant increases in salaries and bonuses in order to attract appropriately talented individuals.” Mark Sparrow, Country Manager, Hudson, Singapore.

The Hudson Report (January-March 2007) is a quarterly survey on the hiring expectations across the industry in Asia (Japan, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore). These surveys are conducted by Hudson consultants amongst the executives from multi-national firms. Some of the key findings within the IT and Telecommunications industry in Singapore is given below:

• Permanent employment expectations: 56% of respondents are expecting to hire more staff in Q1 but an imminent surge is expected as usual in Q2, after detailed planning for the year during the 1st quarter.
• Permanent employment expectations by job roles: Demand for IT professionals is high at 17%, second to Sales jobs which is at 23%. Banking IT specialists are much sought after as more banks are setting up new operations or upgrading existing operations.
• Pay increases to attract managerial staff: 57% say they will pay more than 10%, compared to 35% in Q1 2006. Banks however are expected to pay by far the highest increase, with 78% saying the salaries will rise by ore than 10%.
• Year-end bonus payments: 51% of respondents plan to pay bonuses of more than 10%. Steep rise from 32% in Q1 2006. Banking sector again is making by far the highest bonus payments, with 76% planning to pay more than 10%.
• Staff turnover: 37% of IT&T companies are experiencing turnover of more than 10%.
• Reasons for staff turnover: Poaching is the most significant cause for staff turnover with 30% of the respondents attributing the turnover due to poaching. 10% of the respondents in IT&T, which is significantly higher than any other sector agree that ‘Low staff morale’ is also a very significant reason for staff turnover.

The year 2007 from staffing perspective is expected to be as buoyant as the Singapore economy outlook. Banking and IT are two sectors which will see a significant increase in resource augmentation and this is no surprise considering the number of banking institutions that are already/in-process/on the verge of setting up new/refurbishments/upgrade of operations and data centers.

As competition for quality resources heats up amongst the banks here, a major resource crunch is expected and banks and their recruiting partners will have to progressively look at ways to source and import talent from outside Singapore.

This means that further improvement in salary payouts will have to be implemented in order to attract, recruit and retain quality talents from location such as India and Hong Kong.

Of late, we are seeing a reversal in recruiting trend as far as India is concern – companies in India are looking to recruit from outside India. One of India’s largest Software Development company is in the process of luring back Non-resident-Indian IT pros for middle and senior roles for their projects in India and so are most of the MNC banks in India who are facing stiff challenges in recruiting senior level consultants. We are also seeing specialist recruitment firm such as Job options which is founded and managed by Mr. Achyut Menon. In his own words - “I am pretty convinced that 'global migration' of professionals will be a reality soon, and so it is better to dig ones wells..before one is thirsty!!”. He is of course referring to returning Indian professionals.

This obviously means that companies in India are prepared to match the consultant earnings abroad - dollars to dollars. This will also mean that they are willing to pay the talents within in India which will match their potential earning abroad in order to retain them. This trend is especially prevalent in the banking sector; with so many banks moving their back office support offshore to India this seems to be the obvious.

It therefore, does become necessary for IT&T and banking companies in Singapore to pro-actively look into their existing salary standards and make necessary changes and sacrifices to remain competitive in the fight for quality talents in this part of the world.

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***Happy hunting folks!***

IT pros median salary in Singapore by PayScale!

The other day I got a mail from Susan at PayScale and she was sharing with me about the IT pros payscale in USA and I ask her if she could provide me for Singapore and she replied back immediately with the chart as given below. I thought it’s pretty interesting. You can also find the salary chart for IT pros in India as well as the median salary of IT pros in the different cities in India.

PayScale, Inc. is a market leader in online compensation information, providing access to accurate compensation data for both employees and employers. Learn more about PayScale.

Median Salary of IT pros in Singapore (in USD)

Median Salary of IT pros in India (in USD)

Compare the two charts above and you find the salary differences between the two countries to be more than 3 folds.

However this figures cannot be applied across the industry especially for the banking sectors. According to a recent article in Times of India the salary drawn by a executive and middle level officer in India is comparable to that offered in Singapore.

And for those of you who are keen to know the salary median in the different cities in India the below given chart is a good base to start from.

Median Salary of IT pros in India-by city (in USD)

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***Happy hunting folks!***

Back Out candidates phenomena

back out
1. To withdraw from something before completion.
2. To fail to keep a commitment or promise.

Recruiting is a very exciting and challenging profession and even more so when you recruit IT consultants. The challenges for an IT recruiter in today’s job market are in convincing and managing IT job seekers to remain committed and not back out during the hiring process. With the current IT market boom, good IT consultant can find himself with multiple job offers at any given point of time and will get approached and head hunted by head hunters and recruiters alike constantly. And because he has multiple offers at hand he is bound to remain true to himself and not being loyal to anyone consultant, after all he can only take up one offer at one time. This will also means that to the other recruiter he is bound to be another case of a back out candidate.

As a recruiter, the most frustrating aspect of my job is to have in my hand a candidate backing out – during or after the selection process. For most of us, the stress that we go through as a recruiter is not so much from the targets and the deadlines but the uneasy feeling of not knowing if your selected/shortlisted candidate(s) will remain committed to your offer and take up the job.

My first back out experience in Singapore was with a candidate who had a niche-hard- to-find-skill that we sourced and selected from one of the leading software house in Southern India. The pre-qualifying and the interview process went smoothly and the client was happy and they want him on board ASAP. To make a long story short, we waited for him for one month and on the day of his departure he kept us in tenterhooks by not picking up his calls and when we called his home his family will not give us proper response however subsequently we managed to talk to him and he assured us that alls well. But later I got a call from the airport and that was 2:00 in the morning and he told me that he is not flying and he will not be able to join us because of family reason. That’s it. He decided in the last minute he won’t join us. Here our client IBM is under tremendous pressure themselves from their client because this candidate was supposed to be the lead guy and they wanted to parade him in front of the client the following day. Poor me, I had that sinking feeling deep down inside and I just wasn't feeling good at all to face the client.

Backing out of job offers is a big issue especially in country like India because of the bullish job market. I believe the situation is not so bad for organizations which are of repute and are well established such as Infosys, TCS, Wipro, etc but those second and third tier organization are the one facing the brunt of most of the back out cases. This could be attributed mainly due to the fact that the big boys do not have difficulty in attracting job applicants because of their good brand image and willingness to shell out above average market compensation.

Types of back out:
Let’s look at what stages of the recruitment process a back out can possibly happen.
1. Candidate backing out before the interview
2. Candidate backing out after interview
3. Candidate backing out after accepting the offer
4. Candidate backing out before joining
5. Candidate backing out just after joining

Probable reasons for back outs:
Varied reasons can be attributed as to why a candidate back out, from my past experiences below are some of the common ones -
* Have in hand several offers and will decide on the one best offer
* Developing cold feet at the last moment before submitting his/her resignation letter
* HR/Line Manager convinced him/her to stay back
* Was given a very good counter offer by employer so decided to stay back
* Not serious about leaving current job, and attending interviews just because the opportunity was presented to him/her.
* Learnt of the project which was not to his liking/preference/expectation and is not keen on joining
* The final offer not up to his/her expectation
* Did not agree with some of the clause(s) in the offer letter/appointment letter
* His/her friends/contacts gave negative feedback about the organisation so decided not to join
* Required joining time not reasonable
* See what offer he/she can get from the market to negotiate a better salary with existing employer
* Selection process took too long and has already accepted another offer
* Tried re-negotiating for more salary after selection
* Genuinely have personal/family issue because of which he/she cannot take up the offer

Repercussions & affects of backing out:
- Recruitment is an expensive activity. Every time a candidate backs out the recruitment process has to be initiated all over again.
- Good amount of time and effort is wasted to find a new replacement and projects can and do get delayed and all these translates to revenue lost
- But most important of all is the lost of client’s trust. This is non tangible and will have long term adverse affect vis-à-vis client-vendor relationship.

How to avoid & reduce candidates backing out:
• If you and your candidates are in the same area it is always advisable to meet face-to-face.
• Be it on the phone or in person spent as much time as you can and dig for information – what motivates him to look for a change, professional and personal reasons, what are his expectations in terms of money and roles, etc.
• It is important to be in control when it comes to recruiter-candidate relationship. To achieve that it is important that you conduct a thorough pre-qualifying. Get all the low-down about his background and aspiration, et al.
• Always insist on obtaining either verbally and/or in writing his/her response and commitment to the job offer. You may do this with a direct approach or with great subtlety. Which approach you resort to will depend on each individual or their level of seniority – you need to make the right judgment.
• Constantly update him/her on the process and try keeping-in-touch on a frequent basis.
• Pay close attention while talking to him/her and listen for those tones and expressed/unexpressed concerns and look for those signs that might indicate his intentions.
• If any of his/her words, expressions, actions gives you a sense of doubt and concern, then drop him/her and move on. It is better to drop him/her now than later have a back out in your hand.
• Have a set of questionnaire that you can run through with him/her before proceeding to qualify him - questionnaire that will test his seriousness and sincerity to look for a change.
• Do not hesitate to ask them if they have discussed with his/her family members about this plan to look for a job change. Especially for those who are married, please confirm with them if they have consulted their other half.
• Try and get inside your candidate’s mind, understand his needs and his aspiration.
• Pro-actively try to cover all areas that you possibly think will be a likely point of concern (reason for a back out) for him at a later stage and addressed them immediately.

If after all this you have a back out it’s probably all right, after all, let us not forget that we are only human and let us accept the fact that they too are also just human like us and not anything else (wink!). Like us they too can have many internal and external influences/flaws for them to change their decision at a drop of a hat or act differently at times without any rhyme or reason.

The trick here is to constantly learn from ones mistakes and not repeat the same mistake the next time round. A good recruiter is someone who no matter how many times he falters and gets knocked down will reinvent himself and come back again and again but stronger, better and smatter.


Appreciate if you can share any additional suggestions/comments on how one can avoid candidate backing out.

*** Happy hunting folks!***