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HR professionals in high demand in Malaysia

Recruitment or payroll specialists might want to consider shifting to Malaysia.

According to the Malaysia Salary Guide 2014/15 from Kelly Services Malaysia, the country is actively looking for these types of HR professionals to boost its headhunting and talent management strategies.

“There is an increasing demand from employers in Malaysia for HR professionals with a consultative background primarily for the implementation of strategic HR programs (as opposed to engaging a consulting firm to do so),” the report stated.

The roles in demand within HR in the coming year were found to be talent acquisition managers, compensation and benefits managers and head of HR.

According to the guide, the current minimum base salary for a HR director is RM15,000 with a maximum salary of RM30,000 per month, while a senior recruitment manager could receive a maximum of RM15,000.

In-demand compensation and benefits specialists can earn between RM3,000 to 4,500, while talent acquisition managers can garner RM8,000 to 10,000.

The report stated the popularity of such jobs in the HR sector emphasised the fact that many companies are increasingly focusing on finding the right, skilled talent through direct contact with candidates.

“However, as Malaysia braces itself from an input-driven growth strategy to one which is increasingly driven by knowledge, the local talent required to advance the economic transformation agenda must possess skills and qualities to match industry requirements,” Kamal Karanth A, managing director of Kelly Services Malaysia & India, said.

The report added that within the financial services industry, there were 20 hot jobs compared to 18 last year.

New roles included positions such as Shariah head for Islamic finance, risk management manager, head credit risk, business intelligence manager and management trainee.

In fact, the report also highlighted a spike in salaries for positions such as finance manager and internal audit manager.

“Malaysian wages have grown in key professional industries over the past 12 months with the highest spike in the banking and finance sector, which posted wage rises of between 10% and 25%."

Sales and marketing workers also saw gains of between 10% and 20%, led by a climb in salaries for the position of assistant country manager and business development manager.

A spike in salaries for professionals in the logistics and warehousing sector followed, with there being an increase of between 10% and 15% led by purchasing managers, logistic and planning managers, and operations executives.

“The engineering sector has posted salary growth of as much as 10% in specific jobs such as engineering manager, quality manager and construction manager," the report stated.

"In the contact centre sector (often known as the call centre sector), wages have risen by an average 10%, specifically for senior operations manager, operations manager and client account manager."

Image: Shutterstock

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