SALARY SURVEY 2013 - Robert Walters Singapore

The Irish recruitment marketimproved in 2012, with an increasein job levels within both financialservices and commercialorganisations. As candidateconfidence also improved,professionals became morewilling to consider new jobopportunities thus creatinggreater movement in the market.Financial services organisationshired in greater volumes thanprevious years, particularly inthe specialist areas of audit, riskand compliance in preparationfor Solvency II implementation.In the second half of the year,credit risk, arrears managementand fund accounting specialistswere most sought-after as bankscontinued to expand thesefunctions and manage theirdistressed mortgage books.There was increased recruitmentactivity within multinationalcommercial organisations,with a particular rise in demandfor finance, supply chainand marketing professionals.Although the majority ofrecruitment was at a senior levelwhere niche skills were mandatory(e.g. Six Sigma, digital marketing,revenue accounting), we alsosaw an increase in junior positionsas many organisations soughtto create depth within their teamsdue to an upturn in business.As a result of an increased desireamong employers to hire,competition for the best talentintensified. Consequently,staff retention became a keypriority and counter offers werecommonplace. While recruitmentprocesses remained relativelylong, they quickened during thesecond half of the year indicatingan increased urgency to securethe right candidates.Temporary and contractrecruitment levels continuedto increase across all sectorsthroughout the year. Longertermcontracts of 2-3 yearswere popular options for clientslooking to circumvent headcountrestrictions. Shorter termtemporary staff were also inhigh demand as organisationssought to fill skills gaps resultingfrom increased workloads.In 2013, we expect the primaryfocus to be on sourcinghigh-calibre staff with specialistskill sets and a proven trackrecord within their industry. Weexpect the contract recruitmentmarket to be particularly active,with the existing preferencefor longer term contracts ofup to three years to continue asa result of ongoing headcountrestrictions. Within commerceand industry, we expect to seethe continuation of a somewhatcautious but generally positiveapproach to permanent hiringduring 2013.We expect salaries to generallyremain unchanged; however,professionals with proven sectoror technical expertise are likelyto receive salary increases of5-10% when moving to similarpositions in competingorganisations. For temporaryand fixed-term assignments,we anticipate that completionbonuses will become increasinglycommon as employers seekto retain contractors for theduration of the assignment.Professionals with niche skillswithin IT, audit and compliancewill continue to demand apremium as clients competefor limited candidate resourcesin these areas.IrelandRobert Walters Global Salary Survey 2013 2012