How ANZ crafted a strategy to strengthen local hiring in Singapore

Hiring and retention of Singaporean talent were the two objectives when ANZ Banking Group in Singapore set out to evolve its HR operating model for the in-house recruitment team.

Now only did the transformation bring down attrition to market norms, but local hiring went up by 2%, in an effort that impressed judges at Asia Recruitment Awards, Singapore enough for a gold win in Best Recruitment Evaluation Technique category.

GroupM Asia Pacific bagged the silver, while bronze was shared by Rohde & Schwarz regional HQ in Singapore, and Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), in the ceremony adjudicated by HR leaders from companies across Asia.

Gold-winner ANZ started out with its recruitment transition in 2013, prioritising the advertisement and interview stages for enhancement.

Among the key processes changed, the firm's legacy hiring systems were tapped to identify how they could integrate with the new Jobs Bank mandated by the government.

Existing interview competency tools were also revamped, to incorporate questions on succession so as to understand future localisation capabilities for roles.

All through, the core idea was to allow for natural integration with the requirements of the Fair Consideration Framework, for which a loop of continuous feedback was kept open across the firm.

Indeed, the efforts paid off with more local talent being retained and hired, and the numbers continue to be monitored today. Next on the agenda is recruiting for equal gender representation for this winning team.

ALSO READ: Rolling out new recruitment technology, GroupM style

Silver winner GroupM APAC was also crowned as the night's Grand Winner after taking home six trophies on the occasion.

Michael Wright, who heads talent acquisition for the region, commented: "We are very honoured to have won these awards, and it's a great way for our talent acquisition team, both in Singapore and regionally, to be recognised for their hard work".

IDA's chief of HR and OD, Lau Yin Cheng, also credited his team for their achievement.

"We attribute the win to everyone in Team IDA with every member playing a part in building up the strength of IDA with the best talent possible – HR putting in place the hiring processes, hiring managers partnering HR in identifying the right candidates, and our employees serving as ambassadors."

ALSO READ: Human Resources launches Employee Healthcare Interactive

[gallery link="file" ids="46865,46866,46867,46868,46870" orderby="rand"]