Singapore medium-sized firms face talent sourcing problem

55% of businesses earning $1mln to $45mln yearly see finding competitive staff their key problem.

One of the biggest barriers to achieving business competitiveness amongst medium-sized enterprises located in Singapore is sourcing talented staff, according to a recent business survey by Kadence International.

The study, conducted by the global market research and insight agency in March, examined the challenges facing 303 medium-sized enterprises in Singapore with annual revenues of S$1 million to S$45 million. The research included a range of industries from manufacturing, trade, logistics, chemicals, electronics as well as the service sector.

The findings demonstrated that of the three most common grievances amongst businesses in Singapore - labour costs, office rental / facilities costs, and staff quality - more than half (55%) highlighted their main challenge as finding good staff. It was noted that as companies grew to more than 100 employees, the key business concern was more evenly balanced between labour costs and sourcing talent.

Despite the hike in commercial property prices between 2007 and 2008, which is still affecting those who had arranged leases during this time, office rental and facilities costs was a relatively low complaint for respondents. The exception to this, however, was companies operating in the service sector, where 33% stated this as a major issue in delivering their offering competitively, higher than that of labour costs, and almost on par with finding good staff.

Piers Lee, Managing Director of Kadence International Asia Pacific, commented: "Our survey has highlighted that a lack of local talent is a real concern to almost all sectors, ranging from manufacturing to accountancy, and our own industry, market research. This issue is not unique to Singapore; it is likely that businesses in other Asia Pacific markets, where experience of attracting foreign talent is limited, will find engaging and retaining a dynamic and passionate team to drive an operation forward particularly difficult.

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