Hays Information Technology
January - March 2012
Hotspots
The cloud computing trend within Infrastructure has helped to create good demand over the past quarter for virtualisation candidates. Within the Infrastructure space the majority of recruitment has been seen across the network, server and database areas. Data Centre led roles also seem to be in demand as a number of global organisations choose Singapore as a cost effective location to house information.
The application development space has seen a good demand for Smartphone Developers (Iphone, Android, Blackberry) due to Singapore seeing a surge in e-commerce based activity and the associated social networks. Most technology savvy companies are looking to grow their business through e-commerce whilst at the same time taking advantage of Singapore's 'obsession' with mobile technologies. Open source technologies continue to be in demand with continued hiring of quality PHP and J2EE coders.
The ERP space has more demand for functional consultants. There is a good spread of opportunities but the larger projects are primarily within natural resources/oil and gas and healthcare. Other industries such as manufacturing and telecommunications are in continuous need of ERP talents, though most are also being managed by consulting/vendor companies. Hence the need for candidates with consulting and customer facing capabilities is increasing.
In the IT vendor space, and specifically for IT Sales hiring, the demand for Business Development and Sales Managers has been quite strong for companies looking to hire technical sales professionals to further build their existing client base and also to strengthen relationships with their established accounts and clients. The demand for Project and Program Managers and specially candidates with strong consulting backgrounds is also increasing as more IT vendors bid for new projects across the telecommunications, natural resources and banking domains in the APAC region.
The coming quarter
A more cautious approach for hiring is expected across Infrastructure based technology roles in light of market volatility within Europe and America. SME will continue hiring with the rise of the multi-skilled application support/Administrators being seen as a result of two roles now being re-scoped into one headcount.
The coming quarter should see an increase in hiring for professionals with strong consulting and technology experience and further bidding for new projects. A lot of focus will be for hiring in regions like Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia purely because of the cost factor.
Candidates with experience in the leisure industry, hotel or travel application development will be in increasing demand moving forward as a number of regional airlines and hotel booking sites continue to grow in line with Singapore's positioning as a regional travel hub. Hand in hand with this will be ongoing demand for Smartphone application development skills.
Executive Recruitment
Executive recruitment is being lead presently by the large consulting organisations where industry specific business knowledge is required across telecommunications, oil and gas and banking industries. This has largely been driven by a number of large organisations reducing headcount and engaging vendor led resource for specific projects to keep headcount and growth at sustainable levels due to volatile financial market activity around the world. The need for specific 'country' experience means that hiring remains local with many hires needed to have proven project delivery experience for the country they are applying across Asia.
Employer trends
With headcount becoming more defined, employers are focused on cutting down costs and hiring candidates with multi tasking abilities where possible. Real value for money is being sought in any new hire. There is an increasing trend to hire people who come from similar industries so they can hit the ground running and reduce training costs. However employers are willing to give existing employees on-the-job training for any new skills they introduce and hold onto proprietary or intellectual property rather than lose them to a competitor.
Candidate trends
Counter offers continue to be high with most employers looking to retain people rather than lose a person and possibly not be able to replace them due to headcount not being renewed. Next quarter we will see more candidates making a cautious approach to changing jobs due to volatility in the global market. Most candidates will only move once the market situation becomes clearer within Europe and the US. With Chinese New Year being slightly earlier this year a number of candidates are not going to be seriously looking for jobs until February. We expect some good resources to be released by banks moving into the New Year so those who do hire will still have some good choice in January and February.
