Contingent workers underutilised in Singapore
Singapore – Sixty-four percent of employers in Singapore say they do not view contingent labour as an integral part of their organisation’s workforce strategy. This is higher than the Asia Pacific’s average of 58%.
Among the 635 Singaporean employers across seven industry sectors surveyed by Manpower Singapore, employers in the Public/Admin Education sector (47%) came up tops for recognising non-permanent workers as being the key to workforce strategy. Services sector employers (72%) were least likely to recognise contingent workers as an important piece of their workforce strategy.
The paper defines contingent workers as temporary employees, outsourced workers, contractors and consultants.
Peter Haglund, country manager of Manpower Singapore says that companies should leverage on the use of contingent workers as it provides them with several benefits. First, it allows companies to gain access to people with scarce, specialised skillsets, outsource non-core business functions, try out candidates before hiring them for full-time positions as well as provide for long-term workforce flexibility.
Singapore companies are also most likely to use contingent workforce to help complete work during peak seasonal periods, with covering for employees on leave coming in as the second most popular reason.
However, in light of the recession and employee layoffs, Haglund says that the reasons for using contingent workforce as a resource for covering maternity leave or to meet seasonal demand, will soon be evened out by other factors. “Companies that balance the use of contingent workers can gain competitiveness as they will have the right set and the number of skills when they need them. However, to achieve this, a proactive and structured approach is required,” Haglund adds.
Manpower suggests that in order to take full advantage of opportunities in the recovering economy, employers will need to view contingent workers as a valuable strategic asset, rather than a practical resource.
