Singapore is known best as a centre for trade and industry nestled in the heart of South East Asia. That’s why thousands of international brands have flocked to this strategically located island city-state to give their businesses a better fighting chance in the global competitive market. Since November of 2015, however, numerous companies and businesses in Singapore have been scrambling to get temporary staff and interim professionals to back their workforce, which has led many outsiders to wonder – why are these corporate heavyweights paying such high salaries to temps?
The Increased Need for Temporary Staff
Singapore-based businesses and companies are always trying to outshine competition – that’s why it’s hard to find small-scale and medium-sized enterprises in this thriving business location. That being said, many Singapore-based companies have opened up new temporary positions for temporary staff and interim professionals for the sake of helping them finalize their accounts and come up with new strategies in time for the new year. A total of 73% of Singapore firms have increased their need to temporary staff which is projected to last until March of 2016.
Because it might be harder for companies and businesses to hire full-time employees, they opt to go for contract hires instead. The process of finding the right candidates with employment screening tests, interviews, and assessments is time-consuming and tedious, and because companies will only need to beef up their workforce towards the end of the financial year and during the beginning of the new one, temporary hires seem like a smarter choice.
This is not the first time this has been practised however. The sudden boom in the need for temporary staff has been seen in other countries as well, although not with such a high number of involved corporations. Hong Kong is a close contender with 69% of enterprises looking to hire temporary staff, Japan comes close with 68%, and finally, the UK with 67%.
According to Robert Half Singapore, countless companies have approached them since November of last year asking for temporary recruits to help their businesses find the right manpower for their mini company remodelling strategies. Mid-sized firms are the most common companies involved. These are businesses with 250 to 499 employees.
Many temporary staff and interim professionals say that they enjoy the benefits of their work, as they won’t have to worry about the difficulties of balancing a traditional full-time employment with their home or family responsibilities. What’s more, companies are willing to pay reasonably higher salaries compared to the wages they offer full-time employees which has begged the question – should those with steady employment opt to go temporary instead? While this might seem like a good idea in the short term, temporary employees will be cut from the workforce once all the adjustments have been made. As for Singapore Demands for IT Professionals Rises, It is probably be better for those with stable jobs to stick to what they have unless they want to find themselves out of work when these companies decide it’s time to loosen up the work force once again.
