The changing face of recruitment in Singapore

Recruitment in Singapore has evolved to a different level in the last five years. If you have searched for a job in the recent past, the difference is quite stark.

Earlier, applying through newspaper or online ads for a relevant role would produce some results. Now you might click through 100 relevant roles and still not be called for an interview. This de-motivates jobseekers who then begin doubting themselves and their abilities.

To be able to get results in today's time, it is important to understand the different changes that have happened in Singapore recruitment:

1. Social media recruiting: LinkedIn has changed the way recruitment is done to a great extent especially for experienced hires. It has become one of the primary sourcing tools for a lot of HR and talent acquisition professionals, recruiters, and headhunters.

Even if some of them might not use it as the main source of getting candidates, most recruiters check out LinkedIn profiles for the candidates and it affects the way they perceive you even before they meet you.

2. Online advertisements: While a lot of recruitment firms still source active candidates through advertisements, the success in getting ahead in your job search by just applying online to employers has become minimal.

At most, jobseekers might get an automatic response acknowledging their application and no further communication. You need to find ways to reach the decision-makers in the organisation.

3. Jobs bank and Fair Consideration Framework: All roles below $12k monthly salary need to be open to locals for two weeks and advertised on JobsBank before they can be opened for foreign talent. Jobs Bank is an excellent portal for locals to leave their CV with the right keywords and look at applying roles they are suitable for without initial competition from foreign talent.

4. Recruiters: New recruitment firms are being established on a weekly basis in Singapore, making the talent war between the different firms quite tight. Jobseekers should be selective about which recruiters they should work with, depending on their area of specialisation.

For some functions, working with the big brand names with a huge database works well whereas for some, working with boutique specialised agencies gives much better result.

Your experience might also be different with each recruiter you work with within the same firm. So, be a bit selective on which recruiters you want to work with.

5. Talent acquisition: Talent acquisition (TA) has come to a lot more prominence in the last three to four years with companies either developing their own TA teams or outsourcing them to certain recruitment firms who would then deploy their recruiters to be based at client site and handle recruitment. Most firms with TA teams try not to use third-party recruiters for their search.

With so many changes on the very first step of job application, jobseekers need to identify the best channel to use for each available job and also get to know about jobs that are not advertised extensively.

Let me know your thoughts on what you think about the changing face of recruitment in Singapore by commenting below.