Here's why salary outlook remains positive for Singapore

Are you hoping to receive a raise in 2014? If so, there is a chance you will get one as employers in Singapore are expecting to give conservative salary increases this year, according to the 2014 Hays Salary Guide.

Covering salary and recruiting trends for 1,200 roles across Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China and Japan, it found that more than half of employers (53 per cent) in Singapore increased salaries between 3 and 6 per cent, and only 14 per cent offered increases of 6 to 10 per cent. Just 5 per cent of employers gave increases above 10 per cent.

The findings for Singapore are slightly more conservative than those for Asia overall, but the trend is still positive. Looking ahead, employers in Singapore expect to award similar increases this year. 56 per cent intend to increase salaries between 3 and 6 per cent. 17 per cent will increase salaries above this level, but 27 per cent expect to give an increase of less than 3 per cent or no pay increase at all.

We are seeing that cost control has lowered the ceiling for salary increases in many organisations across Asia as employers are more focused on the bottom line. Certainly salaries remain competitive, and for the top talent many employers offer higher packages to entice candidates, proving that money still talks.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to manage retention, we have seen an increase in the number of organisations offering benefits. 85 per cent of organisations now offer their staff benefits, which is up from 79 per cent last year. The survey also showed that 53 per cent of employers intend to award a bonus to more than 50 per cent of staff.

In other positive news, in the next 12 months 71 per cent of employers expect business activity to increase and 43 per cent expect their permanent staff levels to increase. In our view, that’s strong evidence in support of a local economy that is both confident and providing jobs.

This means that those candidates with in-demand skills and realistic salary expectations can be confident that this year will provide them with the opportunity to secure a challenging career move and a salary increase.

According to the 2014 Hays Salary Guide, trends at a glance for Singapore are as follows:

• Accountancy & Finance:
Competition to attract the top talent remains high with tax, compliance and management consulting candidates sought after. Firms are increasingly using less tangible benefits to attract candidates, such as long-term career prospects, more varied client exposure or more rapid promotions.

• Banking:
Salaries for risk and compliance professionals are higher than for other job functions, and those changing jobs receive the highest salary increments. Increases between 20 and 25 per cent are common.

• Insurance:
High profile acquisitions throughout South East Asia led to demand for project management, change and integration specialists, as well as strategy candidates. Acquisitions also led to demand for sales and distribution professionals to grow and expand market share.

• Finance Technology:
The key trend likely to impact banks this year is the latest government initiative endorsing local Singaporean hires. Banks are reacting quickly with an emphasis on the right proportion of local, permanent resident and work pass holders in their headcount.

• Information Technology:
We have seen increased demand for contract resources across all levels with companies moving towards implementing more advanced flexible workforce strategies. In areas of high demand such as cloud, virtualization, mobile development and security we expect to see salary increases above the market average.

• Life Sciences:
MNCs are actively seeking candidates with technology transfer experience in process, chemistry and engineering as the major facilities in Singapore gear up for capital expansion plans this year. Overall salaries remain stable across both technical and commercial functions.

• Human Resources:
We are experiencing a candidate driven market and as a result salaries are rising. Companies are also becoming aware that they need to pay an increment to those moving on from their current roles. We expect salaries to remain competitive as the shortage of candidates will continue throughout 2014.

• Office Professionals:
High turnover remains a key feature of Singapore’s office professionals market as candidates change employers to progress their career. Competition for the top talent is very high. We have seen high demand for Executive Assistants and Secretaries across all industries.

• Contact Centres:
We expect to see continued demand for junior candidates throughout 2014. We also expect the salary scale for junior agents to increase slightly in order for companies to attract quality candidates to meet their growing demand.

• Legal:
Private practice firms and financial institutions have sought candidates well versed in the financing of large and complex deals, including bilateral and syndicated loans, assets and leveraged and structured finance. This demand is expected to continue throughout 2014.

• Sales & Marketing:
Last year we saw companies invest in senior management sales hires and we expect this trend to continue for the remainder of 2014. We have also seen a growing focus on market intelligence roles ranging from consumer insights to business analytics.

• Supply Chain:
Specialist candidates such as Planners or Operations Managers with experience managing outsourced manufacturing providers will be in high demand, particularly in the pharmaceutical and food and beverage industries.

• Procurement:
Indirect procurement is very active and given the demand for talent, we are likely to see a need for specialists from overseas. We are also likely to see salary increases for highly valued locally experienced candidates, particularly in the banking, pharmaceutical and consumer goods industries.

• Construction & Engineering:
We are seeing high demand for Project, Construction and Tunnel Managers who have end-to-end project experience from set up through to execution and handover. We expect to see greater salary increases for Quantity Surveyors, Estimators, Project Managers, Construction Managers and Tunnel Managers than for other technical and non-technical staff.

• Architecture:
Local candidates with local qualifications and experience, or citizens and permanent residents with overseas qualifications recognised by the BOA, are most attractive to employers. Such candidates are in short supply and can therefore negotiate a higher salary in response to the Government’s push to cap the number of foreign hires.

• Property:
New developments continue to underpin an active market and create ongoing staffing needs for developers, service providers, project management and facilities management companies in Singapore.

• Oil & Gas:
With Singapore acting as a regional hub for many companies servicing the South East Asian
market we are seeing high demand for Reservoir Engineers, Senior Geophysicists and Geologists. This is especially the case for Asian nationals who are required to support offshore and onshore drilling operations.