How hiring online impacts Singapore businesses

By Kristine Lauria

Singapore's infrastructure and pro-business policies continue to attract entrepreneurs and business from around the world, and a growing percentage of new business is focused on technology; but local businesses are facing several threats to their bottom dollar, including a talent crunch that makes it hard to find and retain talent.

How are successful Singapore technology companies growing in this market given extreme talent constraints? The answer lies in how they leverage technology to overcome local limitations and instead access the best talent in the world.

The internet is equalising talent resources by allowing businesses to find and hire people with the skills they need, regardless of where these people are located. This is especially valuable to businesses that face a shortage of STEM talent.

By expanding their search beyond the local market, hiring managers are able to access a global pool of freelance talent. They are quickly adopting a hybrid team model, hiring professionals online, often with specialised skills it would be impossible to find otherwise, to support their core local team.

Websites allow companies to find freelancers doing any type of work which can happen online -- development, design, writing, and even accounting -- and hire them on a fixed project or hourly basis. This represents a new model of hiring that gives businesses a competitive edge in the global market.

The success of Singapore depends on our businesses evolving their workforce and adopting new technology to increase productivity. Nothing is more important than access to the talent necessary to power innovation itself.

Technology companies looking to source STEM talent represent the largest cohort currently hiring online (more than 60% of businesses in Singapore hire IT talent, according to Elance-oDesk data) but IT is not the only industry accessing a global pool of talent.

Companies across the board are looking for additional help with many components of their businesses, including design, marketing, and sales. Last year we saw a 66 percent year-over-year increase in demand for admin support - from busy managers looking to hire virtual assistants to manage their email and calendars, to analysts who need help with web research and data entry.

In addition, marketing teams need freelancers to keep up with the pace of business and generate web content, lead social media outreach, and build collateral.

Singapore is the top Asian country for hiring freelance talent online on my company's sites and the top 10 market globally. In the past year alone, we've seen a 40 percent increase in the number of Singapore-based companies hiring online.

The scrappy startups that are taking root on our little red dot are at the forefront of this new trend -- they are thinking bigger to find the talent they need to grow, and you should too.

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