Singapore companies fail to use talent analytics

When it comes to talent analytics, Singapore has a bit of catching up to do.

According to Randstad’s World of Work Report, 67% of Singaporean companies are not fully utilising talent analytics to help create a more strategic workforce for the future.

Regionally, Singapore lags behind countries such as China - where 60% of businesses are leveraging on talent analytics - India and Malaysia (both at 39%) and Hong Kong (35%).

Michael Smith, country director of Randstad Singapore, said while local companies recognise attracting new talent for business growth will be the biggest HR challenge next year, a majority are not mining available data effectively to drive their talent agenda.

“Organisations needing creative, adaptive leaders must find professionals with wide-ranging experience across multiple sectors or functions, and who are confident with risk and uncertainty,” he said.

“Those companies currently using talent analytics to inform their talent strategy can identify high-potential employees and more closely link remuneration and benefits to high performance.”

Singaporean leaders also fared poorly when it came to long term talent strategy; 83% of local employers said they only plan their workforce for 12 months or less in advance, with 35% of organisations reporting their talent strategy to be limited or non-existent.

More than half of local companies (57%) are also planning on outsourcing their recruitment process next year, slightly lower than the 66% reported in Malaysia.

“As globalisation and the speed of work makes the talent equation more complex, outsourcing key elements of recruitment and talent management to experts in strategic planning, talent mapping and resource management is becoming an increasingly appealing solution,” Smith said.

Other key HR challenges highlighted in the report included two thirds of Singaporean employees expecting a salary increment of at least 5% over the next 12 months. Another two thirds of Singaporean and Malaysian employees also reported intentions to leave their current positions in the next 12 months, making it the highest in the region.

“With more employees looking to leave Malaysia for overseas employment, analysing employee data can help employers identify and implement methods to better engage the existing workforce in Malaysia,” Jasmin Kaur, director of Randstad Malaysia, said.

In order to combat these human capital challenges, 67% of employers surveyed said they will strengthen employee engagement and collaboration, 55% will improve middle-management capabilities and 46% will align their workplace plan with the business strategy.

“With continuous tightening of the labour market and the pressure this puts on a company’s leadership pipeline, it is increasingly important that companies take a forward-looking approach to their human capital strategy,” Smith said.