Talent war is the top challenge for Singapore's services firms in 2018

In a survey by Workday polled at its recent Engaging Singapore’s Workforce of the Future panel discussion attended by Human Resources, 40% of respondents cited competition for talent as the biggest issue for Singapore’s services companies in 2018. Other challenges included managing workforce diversity (23%); and a lack of data and insights (23%).

According to the report, changing work habits, including flexible working arrangements, which is increasingly prevalent in the services industry, was seen as less of an issue with only 14% of leaders sharing the sentiment.

Additionally, half of the respondents forecast big data analytics to be the technology which will have the greatest impact on employee engagement in Singapore’s services companies in 2018. Around one in four leaders also forecast social media (27%) and artificial intelligence (23%) to have the most impact.

On barriers, the study revealed that 43% of HR leaders said cost of implementation was the biggest barrier to digital transformation in HR in the services industry.

In the media release, David Hope, Asia Pacific president, Workday, said: “New technologies such as big data analytics are impacting how Singaporean companies plan, manage and develop their workforces. As Singapore’s services industries continue to grow and diversify, we forecast they will be most impacted.”

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