Singapore firms shell out $280m for retraining talents

Bad recruitment could be very pricey.

New research by professional services network PwC, commissioned by LinkedIn today reveals that poor talent adaptability – the inability for people to retrain for new skills or switch industries – is costing Singapore S$280 million in lost productivity and leads to businesses wasting huge sums on avoidable recruitment costs.

For the 11 markets analysed in the research, the total could be as much as S$188.1 billion in both lost productivity as well as avoidable recruitment costs. A lost opportunity to generate S$280 million of additional productivity – the research found a strong correlation between the adaptability of the talent in a particular country and the performance of its companies. 

If Singapore was better at matching talent with the right opportunities, this could unlock as much as S$280 million of productivity. The total across the 11 markets studied was some S$163 billion.

Avoidable recruitment costs of S$80 million– this lack of access to the right talent is driving up the cost of recruitment for employers today. 

The longer time taken to find the right candidates, and the increased likelihood for mismatched talent to leave sooner are costing companies in Singapore $80 million in avoidable recruitment costs. For the 11 markets analysed it is a combined total of S$24.8bn.