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HR professionals in Singapore focused on hiring top talent to gain business advantages

If your HR team is focused on hiring top talent to gain business advantages, you're not alone. Aon's 2019 Talent Acquisition Southeast Asia Study has revealed that the top three HR focus areas for companies in Singapore center on hiring top talent to gain business advantages.

These areas include attracting quality talent (59%), building employer brand (32%) and enhancing efficiency of the recruitment process (30%), Aon said in a press release.

The study surveyed over 600 talent acquisition professionals across Asia Pacific and the Middle East about their talent priorities and future plans – with 142 respondents from Southeast Asia, including Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.

Despite 'attracting quality talent' being a top priority for Singapore organisations, it was found only 17% of these organisations assess their candidates for digital mindsets.

Further, qualities including digital communication, strategic solutioning, a drive to succeed and mental endurance are among the common expectations across the board.

In line with that, 59% of Singapore organisations face a challenge attracting quality talent, while just 33% use technology-enabled assessments covering personality, cognitive ability and behaviours to identify candidates with the right competencies. In fact, only 18% currently use mobile-enabled assessments while 14% use video-based assessments, while only 5% use gamified assessments.

That said, it was highlighted that these numbers are expected to increase significantly in the future due to the following:

  • There is a 31-point increase in companies looking to adopt mobile-based assessments (49%);
  • A 21-point increase for video-based assessments (35%);
  • And a 22-point increase for gamified assessments (27%).

On the need for companies to continue hiring the right talent for an advanced workforce, Ishita Bandyopadhyay, Practice Lead, Assessment Solutions, Singapore at Aon said: "To build a workforce of the future, companies must target the candidates with the skills and competencies to achieve elite results. AI-enabled sourcing and candidate relationship management tools are key to doing this successfully.

"Talent acquisition professionals must deliver a candidate experience that is in sync with their customer-facing brand, and have the skills to use social media to engage passive job-seekers effectively."

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