Hiring Heat Map: Guess what job roles are hot in the financial sector
Banks are likely to freeze hiring except for some job roles.
Macroeconomic uncertainties here and abroad have impacted the hiring trend in the financial sectors, accroding to hiring recruitment agency Kerry Consulting.
Key impacts include the following:
Head office politics have led to some foreign institutions to reemphasize on home markets away from Asia, or in other cases, unclear strategies on how to reallocate scarce resources amongst key Asian business centres. This has resulted in the investment in strategic hires only to let them go for non-performance reasons.
Expatriate packages are no longer common. Most expatriates prefer to stay in Singapore rather than return home; this translates to less backfill opportunities for replacement hires
Rotation of seconded expatriate staff from head office is being reviewed to enable more head office talent to gain experience in Asia
Some senior managers have been asked to take a pay cut. This is usually acceptable where there is limited alternative opportunities
HR has risen in influence (which is typical at times of cost containment); line managers are better at toeing the line against initiating hires without prior HR approval.
Focus on internal mobility programs and internal resourcing capabilities to save on external hiring cost.
Voluntary (offered over a limited window period) and/or mandatory redundancy programs are offered by some institutions.
Some long-time employees (ie. >8 years of service) are holding on to their jobs in anticipation of a generous redundancy pay-out. This in turn limits the flexibility of the business from hiring new headcount.
There are concerns against making career moves amidst a landscape of structural changes especially when the salary premium-to-move has fallen as companies are keeping a closer eye on costs .