The 3 most sought-after roles across 5 functions in Asia

With organisations expecting HR to take on a more strategic, business partnering role as opposed to an administrative role, it is not surprising that HR business partnering is the most in demand job function in the HR industry.

Polling almost 3,500 employers and employees across Asia, Hudson's recent survey revealed the top three in-demand job functions in five industries including HR, technology, and accounting and finance.

Human resources

• 1. HR business partnering
• 2. Talent management
• 3. Compensation and benefits

• 1. Financial Planning and Analysis
• 2. Corporate Finance
• 3. Financial Reporting

• 1. Financial crime compliance
• 2. KYC
• 3. Internal audit

• 1. Sales
• 2. Digital sales
• 3. Pre-sales

• 1. IT business partnering
• 2. Cyber security management
• 3. Software development manager

Additionally, the survey revealed that almost 90% of employees surveyed expected their base salary to increase at their next review with their manager.

Digging deeper, 25% of employees expected their base salary to increase by 0-5%, 45% expected an increase of 6-10% and 17% expected an increase of more than 10%. Only 13% expected their pay to remain the same, and less than 1% expected a decrease.

However, that doesn't mean that a pay rise alone will guarantee that employees will stay. Only 2 in 5 said that a pay rise alone would be enough for them to stay for another year.

When asked ‘If your salary increased, would you stay with your organisation for another 12 months?’, 42% of employees said yes, while 44% were not sure and 14% said no.

With 88% of Singaporean employers either increasing headcount or replacing staff who leave, it might not come as a surprise that only 16% of employees said they were planning to stay in their current job.

More than one in five (29%) were actively seeking a new role and the remaining 55% were open to new opportunities.

“Professionals want to keep their options open, especially those who have niche skillsets or technical skills, as they know they are in high demand,” said Alena Salakhova, Hudson regional director, Singapore.

“Professionals are managing their digital profiles and maintaining relationships with specialist recruiters so they can be alerted to good opportunities when they come up – even if they’re happy in their current organisation or indeed even if they receive a pay rise.”

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