Singaporean businesses advised to examine global workforce mobility

The Government’s proposed increase in foreign worker levies may signal an intention to push away from the reliance on overseas skilled professionals, but with a shortage of domestic skills and growing workforce mobility it’s up to Singaporean HR and recruitment professionals to think strategically about global workforce mobility in order to recruit successfully over the next two decades.

We suggest businesses use this increase in foreign worker levies as motivation to examine global workforce mobility and devise a long-term talent supply plan to give you an edge in today’s increasingly competitive skills market.

The reality is that we live in an age when corporations and industry sectors are becoming borderless. At the same time, talent shortages will become one of the biggest challenges facing organisations over the next two decades. So while organisations can potentially attract and recruit from a much wider geography than ever before, the global talent pipeline will also create serious new challenges for HR to navigate – which extend far beyond government levies.

As a result, we believe HR and recruitment professionals need to actively manage, model and plan for the pressure points they are likely to face globally.

For example, the challenge may be to manage or stem a flow away from an economy or region, creating a focus on retention and attraction. Or it may involve navigating within or around increasingly protectionist political climates, whether this involves legislation to limit inward skilled migration or more robust laws to protect ‘local’ jobs or prevent the outward migration of local skilled labour.

In addition, in the context of a global jobs market, whole regions, sectors or industries will need to work harder to position themselves as attractive to international professionals.

In a borderless hiring market, we believe that understanding what matters most to staff in different parts of the world is vital. Hiring managers will need to understand the flow of their talent pipeline – both in and out of Singapore as well as in and out of all countries an organisation operates in - and know why people move and what drives this movement of talent around the globe.

Already more organisations are recruiting global mobility managers to liaise between HR and line or senior managers to ensure the smooth flow of talent between their global operations. This includes managing tax, regulatory, relocation and immigration requirements as well as systems, compensation and cultural issues. It also includes access to a strategic, globally focused recruitment service backed up by extensive international networks.

The world we live and work in is changing at an ever-increasing rate. The ability to strategically manage global mobility will be the cornerstone of retaining a hard-won competitive edge in the decades to come.

Chris Mead, General Manager, Hays, Singapore