SINGAPORE’S TOP TALENT TRENDS FOR 2020: RAPID DIGITALISATION TO DRIVE JOB MARKET
Marked by continuous digital transformation and automation, Singapore’s job market is geared for significant evolution in the coming year, says recruiting experts Hays, as part of the country’s top 10 talent trends for 2020.
One of the biggest talent trends observed for the coming year is the impact of digitalisation on traditional job roles across industries and functions. Apart from a high demand for digital professionals in the areas of software engineering, user experience, cloud engineering and data analytics, there will also be a rise in hybrid roles such as business intelligence/analyst positions that merge insights, analytics and marketing functions; or data science evangelist positions that require a blend of data science know-how and a strong consulting experience to obtain the buy-in of various stakeholders.
Automation will also impact functions across industries, resulting in both the restructuring and transferring of roles, as well as the creation of new job titles. While back office duties that are more transactional may become more prone to offshoring or automation, new opportunities will also be created in a bid to add more value to businesses.
Other trends include hiring in the e-payments sector, that is seeing increased demand for strategic candidates with an innovative perspective on customer retention to beat competition. There will also be a drive towards advanced manufacturing as medical devices companies continue moving into Singapore and benefit from the governments Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) 2020 plan.
“The rapid pace of digital change in Singapore has laid the way for a new set of challenges and opportunities in 2020,” says Grant Torrens, Regional Director for Hays in Singapore.
‘However, the country’s movements towards a more digital and automated workforce is well in tune with global movements towards the same. The continuous support of the Singaporean government will help sustain and accelerate these industries, bolstered by the country’s healthy economy and relatively favourable market conditions amidst trade tensions.
‘Open-minded organisations who can offer opportunities to develop and train their employees will find themselves with a surplus of qualified talent and a way of beating the competition for top talent. For candidates, those ready to embrace the impending digitisation of all industries and equip themselves with the change management skills needed to weather transformation will be best placed for the year ahead.”
Hays Top 10 Talent Trends for 2020 in Singapore are:
1) MOVE TOWARD ADVANCED MANUFACTURING
Despite weaker global economic momentum and ongoing US-China trade tensions, Singapore's medical device manufacturing industry is expected to continue growing, owing to increasing healthcare demands and increased government expenditure. Despite the small local market and regulatory red tape, the country continues to attract medical device manufacturers globally due to its deep talent pool, technological advantages, strong infrastructure, and strategic location. In 2020, medical device players will move into advanced manufacturing practices, driven by the S$19 billion budget from the country’s Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) 2020 plan and strong competition. For employees on the market, this means embarking on rigorous upskilling and training to remain relevant in an increasingly competitive market.
2) FLEXIBLE RECRUITMENT SOLUTIONS GAIN MOMENTUM
Given the global economic uncertainty that is expected to continue into 2020, most organisations in Singapore will continue seeing reductions in budgets and new permanent hires. Additionally, organisations across industries will continue to be disrupted by automation and digital transformation, pushing up the availability of project-based work. These factors will drive more businesses to consider flexible recruitment solutions (contracting or temporary employees), as a lower risk solution to meet project and hiring demands. We have also observed more candidates becoming interested in such roles as pathways to gaining experience in multiple industries and exciting technology-driven projects. While there is still some way to go, the increasing maturity of the Singapore contracting market will see more flexibility and higher remuneration rates in the year to come.
3) E-PAYMENTS TAKE OFF
Rapid entry of new fintech players, particularly within the payments and cards space have disrupted the consumer banking ecosystem. Their offerings of new products and services at lower fees and interest rates coupled with higher efficiency (from cutting down of value chains) have forced conventional banks to rethink their customer loyalty strategies. As a result, we foresee a high demand for strategic or forward-thinking candidates with expertise in product development and innovation in 2020. This trend will be bolstered by Singapore’s push to remain a leading fintech innovator with progressive regulations and state of art infrastructure. The MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore) unveiling of digital banking licenses to include non-banking players has also created more opportunities for candidates to move out of traditional banking roles into positions that require them to be innovative and adopt a solution-driven mindset.
4) RENEWED FOCUS ON ENHANCING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
As users become more tech savvy, there will be an increased focus on enhancing the user experience through improvements and optimisation of interfaces, created a higher demand for candidates with newer JavaScript frameworks like Angular, React, and Ember. We have also observed a growing demand for professionals specialising in user experience as more companies set up innovation-focused teams and hubs. Niche designers in the UI/UX space are being increasingly headhunted to help such business units flourish, accompanied by generous salaries and bonuses, particularly in the financial services sector.
5) SOFTWARE ENGINEERING WILL BE THE NEED OF THE HOUR
AI and ML (machine learning) technologies will continue to be leveraged by companies implementing automation into their functions. As a result, the demand for backend developers with expertise in various programming languages will continue to rise in 2020. Containerisation tools like Docker and Kubernetes are also fast becoming a necessity as more businesses look towards microservice architectures to scale their applications. Cloud infrastructure will also continue to become more prevalent, leading to a ‘talent war’ for software engineers with experience developing and deploying applications on either private clouds or main players such as AWS, GCP, Microsoft Azure.
6) SUPPLY CHAINS OPERATIONS WILL CENTRALISE INTO “HUB” MODEL
Supply chain operations around the world are showing a trend towards a creating centralised teams in either the company’s headquarters or in countries with lower operating cost countries. This could benefit Singapore as an increasing amount of MNCs have their head office in the island city. However, employers are unlikely to offer high increments on offers for lateral moves for this reason, meaning candidates should think carefully about their next move and focus on gaining cross-functional or cross-category experience. They would also benefit for ensuring they find the right culture fit in their new company, rather than chasing significant salary increments alone.
7) CLOUD ENGINEERING AND DEV-OPS WILL ATTRACT PREMIUM OFFERS
As infrastructure evolves and the usage of virtualized technical environments become more prevalent, there will be a higher demand for candidates with cloud engineering skills and technical cloud certifications in 2020. While increments can go up to 20-25% for strong talent in this space, candidates with such skills tend to be mobile across industries and will likely have multiple options available to them when considering new opportunities
Another strong trend is the use of more automation and scripting skills among system engineers, promoting the usage of Dev-Ops technologies such as containerization and monitoring tools. Breaking out of the silo model, infrastructure operations and development teams will now work more closely and with Agile methodology for efficient operations. The challenge for system engineers who want to stay relevant is increasingly clear – pick up basic scripting skills such as Python, Bash and Shell, or be limited to traditional system technologies.
8) TRANSFORMATION AND AUTOMATION
Organisations will continue to go through the process of transformation and automation in 2020, resulting in both the restructuring and transferring of roles, as well as the creation of new job titles. While back office duties that are more transactional may become more prone to offshoring or automation, new opportunities will also be created in a bid to add more value to businesses. Companies will likely step up their efforts to hire people with cross-functional skills sets, or who can demonstrate a willingness to adapt and reskill. Project management skills will continue to be in demand for their relevance in coordinating, leading and ensuring smooth transformation and knowledge transfer. While many back office operational roles may be transferred overseas, key positions will remain in Singapore and act as a bridge between the regional head office and support teams based in lower-cost locations.
9) DEMAND FOR DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS WILL CONTINUE
Companies will continue their focus on acquiring digital marketing talent to keep pace with the industry-wide digital transformation. Currently, candidates from conventional marketing roles are expected to have a strong understanding of running end to end digital marketing campaigns as marketing and digital skills converge with overall communication strategy skills. This will affect candidate pools due to its mismatch with the current-day skillsets of traditional public relations professionals.
10) DATA & ANALYTICS WILL GO HYBRID
As more organisations see the value in big data, the need for real-time analytics and subsequent demand for data engineers will continue to rise. In 2020, we expect to see a new breed of hybrid roles that combine data knowledge with traditional functions. Examples include business intelligence/analyst positions that merge insights, analytics and marketing functions; or data science evangelist positions that require a blend of data science know-how and a strong consulting experience to obtain the buy-in of various stakeholders.
About Hays
Hays plc (the "Group") is a leading global professional recruiting group. The Group is the expert at recruiting qualified, professional and skilled people worldwide, being the market leader in the UK and Asia Pacific and one of the market leaders in Continental Europe and Latin America. The Group operates across the private and public sectors, dealing in permanent positions, contract roles and temporary assignments. As at 30 June 2019 the Group employed 11,500 staff operating from 265 offices in 33 markets across 20 specialisms. For the year ended 30 June 2019:
– the Group reported net fees of £1,129.7 billion and operating profit (pre-exceptional items) of £248.8 million;
– the Group placed around 81,000 candidates into permanent jobs and around 254,000 people into temporary assignments;
– 18% of Group net fees were generated in Australia & New Zealand, 27% in Germany, 23% in United Kingdom & Ireland and 32% in Rest of World (RoW);
– the temporary placement business represented 57% of net fees and the permanent placement business represented 43% of net fees;
– Hays operates in the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, the UK and the USA