36% of companies to hire more employees in 2Q11

For most employers, this entails a 5-10% increase to current staff numbers.

According to the recent Michael Page Employment Index, 69% of companies will be focusing hiring activity on revenue generating areas like sales and business development, in an effort to capitalise on positive economic conditions.

A further 23% of recruitment will be around support roles in areas like marketing and information technology, which represents an increase of 7% on first quarter hiring intentions.

As the labour market tightens across Singapore, skills shortages are beginning to re-emerge across professional occupational groups. The retention of talented professionals is becoming a serious business challenge for those employers looking to retain people with the right skills to facilitate business growth. Over half of the employers surveyed for this report are placing a major focus on the retention of key staff in the second quarter. This is higher than the comparative surveys of China (47%), Australia (43%) and Hong Kong (35%).

Most companies (39%) will be offering training and development opportunities as the primary retention strategy. A further 36% of employers will be offering performance-based rewards as an incentive for top performers to remain with their company.

Alongside talent management, wages growth continues to be a key concern for employers in Singapore. Some 31% of respondents believe that the cost of living is rising faster than the rate of wages growth, which is raising the salary expectations of employees. For most companies (75%), the highest rate of wages growth in the second quarter will be seen in revenue generating areas like sales, which reflects the intention of employers to increase the revenue generating capacity of their business.

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