Talent turnover in marketing industry surged to 40%

Labor pool isn't enough.

According to HR solutions provider font, Singapore’s digital, marketing and creative industries are booming, but changes to foreign work passes will leave the sector’s SMEs struggling to find the talent to do the job.

Junior and mid-level creatives are now hugely in demand and Singapore simply cannot produce enough young talent to keep up, say recruiters in the industry.

font, which specialises in recruitment in these industries, says digital, marketing and creative companies are faced with a mounting challenge of finding enough people to get the job done.

Karin Clarke is font’s regional director for Asia and has 20 years’ experience in recruitment across the Asia Pacific market. She says recent investment from the Singaporean Government in the creative and digital space has led to an increase in business opportunities, but the problem is finding and retaining talent needed to get the job done. Art directors, graphic designers, PR account executives and account managers are particularly in demand.

The sector usually reports a 25 – 30 per cent staff turnover, but last year companies experienced a turnover of up to 40 per cent.

Ms Clarke says talent for new roles, particularly at the junior to mid level, is becoming increasingly difficult to find, and is further hindered by recent measures to curb the influx of foreign workers and issuance of work passes.

“The fact is, there simply is not enough talent in the creative sector to support its growth demand," she says.

Ms Clarke adds that companies are resorting to actively headhunting from one another, which again is seeing even more movement and turnover rates increasing even further.

“There are two factors at play here - growth and movement. The government’s investment in the industry has created jobs, which is a good problem to have, but talent is tight. Then, the industry is notorious for long hours, which has always resulted in a high turnover. Now as company’s struggle to fill the newly-created roles, it is the incumbents who have to pick up the extra workload,” Ms Clarke says.