Singapore CEOs paranoid about losing their top talents: survey

Higher pay is surprisingly not the key.

Singapore’s top leaders are concerned now more than ever, as high business confidence levels may exacerbate the challenges of hiring and retaining top talents.

Robert Half’s latest Employment Report for 2H14 reveals that 100% of senior leaders from banking and financial services are worried about their top employees, compared to 91% in the previous year. For the IT sector, 96% of the respondents were concerned about talent retention - up 5% from the first half.

According to Robert Half, companies in Singapore will have to look at options besides simply increasing remuneration if they wish to attract and retain the best talents whilst keeping overheads low. Pro work-life balance and better employee engagement policies will have to be leveraged effectively to keep Singapore-based organisations globally competitive

Here’s more from Robert Half:

Hiring within finance and accounting in the commerce and industry sector will remain buoyant in the second half of the year. 55% of CFOs are planning to add new permanent finance and accounting staff, while 39% will be maintaining their current headcount. Only 5% are freezing all new hires and 1% forecasting a reduction in headcount.

Recruitment of technology professionals will be slightly less active than for finance and accounting professionals with 44% of CIOs planning to add new permanent staff, 49% maintaining current levels, 7% freezing all new hires and none are looking to reduce headcount.