Singapore Recruitment Insight Recap In The First Half Of 2022

If I’m asked to list out one thing that we shouldn’t miss out on during this period of time, alongside summer vacations, it has to be a recap of the most significant Singapore recruitment insights.

• What does the tech hiring market look like in the first half of 2022?

• And more importantly, how do we use those data to your hiring advantage?

Read on if these are also what you’re dying to know.

As always, let me start off with this not-so-good news.

Singapore ranked fourth among the top overworked cities

The security platform Kisi has released its study on Cities with the Best Work-Life Balance 2022 by comparing data on work intensity, institutional support, legislation, and liveability. Frankly, Singapore made the top five overworked cities in fourth place.

The phrase “great resignation” has been repeated on media and reports lately as there has been a significant increase in the number of job switchers across the market. Employee burnout is pointed out as one of the main reasons for this event.

Specifically, employee fatigue is getting real in Singapore. In a report by RPA software company UiPath, 97% of surveyed workers said they feel exhausted at least one workday per week. On top of that, 73% of workers in the country consider quitting their jobs in the next 6 months due to work stress.

Employees shared they have too much on their plates – work from colleagues resigning in the past year, duties outside their job description, and taking on dull tasks.

So, regarding workers – they’re not feeling so good. Will there be some positive stats from the companies side?

Layoffs are happening, but not to all

Singapore tech businesses are facing a similar trend as the US’: a handful of companies enact layoffs or hiring freezes. However, the good news is, there are still ones that are hiring. With fewer hiring competitors in the market, their openings would have a better opportunity to be filled.

Most of those companies are in the health tech and logistics sectors and are from post-series C funding stages. Their demand, unsurprisingly, is for the backbone of digital platforms’ roles – software engineers.

One challenge has remained – a tight tech labor market

Despite hurdles such as rising inflation and the tech industry’s hiring boom’ slowdown, companies in Singapore are not holding back on their overseas expansion. However, challenges like a lack of manpower are dampening their scale-up.

Workers like remote work

Remote work now seems to be the go-to criteria for both employees and job seekers to consider their commitment to a firm:

• A new study from CareerBuilder reveals that remote and hybrid jobs are attracting 7 times more applicants than in-person roles.

• Specifically in Singapore, 71% of employees prefer remote work mode.

• Nearly half of employees in Singapore are willing to give up pay raises to be able to work flexibly, slightly higher than Asia (37%) and the global average (34%).

So in order to address the employee burnout and poor recruitment, many decided to give remote work options a shot. Turning out, 70% of surveyed employees in The Cisco Global Hybrid Work Study 2022 responded they saved over four hours a week, 87% admitted that they are happier, and 82% noted improved work-life balance.

Do companies feel the same way?

Yes, they do.

Not only do employees and job seekers find the remote option that benefits their work life, but also the employers. At the same research of Cisco, companies that support flexibility at work:

• Get their employees to stay longer: 65% of ASEAN respondents are less likely to leave and look for a new role when their employers are supportive of hybrid work mode.

• See the gain in employees’ work productivity: Nearly 60% of employees believe that there has been an improvement in their work quality. Also, over three-quarters felt that their role can now be performed as successfully remotely as in the office.

What to do next?

Although the tech hiring market is a slowdown, employees and job seekers are still in the driver’s seat. To better attract and retain talent for the second half of the year, companies need to focus more on employee engagement, not only from the very beginning of the hiring process but also all the way through the onboarding and after hiring.

Offering the remote option to established workers, and being open to hiring remote software engineers can help boost the commitment and work effectiveness of the hires and tech companies as a whole.

Check out how to start getting the right remote tech talent in Vietnam for your job openings now!