As the global economy moves towards gradual recovery, the business landscape is seeing more opportunities for growth. Despite the high levels of uncertainty during this pandemic, there is a notable surge in the launch of new startups taking advantage of changing consumer preferences. This growth momentum can be seen inching towards the tech industry, boosting more tech activity in Southeast Asia. The internet and digitalization has never been more relevant, and this is all shaped by the impacts of Covid-19. 

So, is Singapore a good environment to start a new business? According to money.co.uk, Singapore ranks as the 12^th best city to launch a startup, clinching a score of 56.8 out of 100, compared to the top ranked city; Copenhagen, Denmark at 77.7. The calculations of these scores were determined through these 8 factors that influence the affordability and appeal of setting up a business in that location: 

1. Business registration fees 

2. Corporate tax rates 

3. Employer social security rates 

4. Number of coffee shops per resident 

5. Average broadband download speed (Mbps) 

6. The cost of renting one desk in a co-working space 

7. Percentage of students 

8. The city’s highest university ranking on the ‘Times Higher Education World University Ranking 2022’ 

Specifically in the tech landscape, Singapore emerges as the top country in KPMG’s 2021 global ranking of leading technology hubs outside of Silicon Valley/San Francisco. With Singapore’s high internet penetration coupled with relatively ‘low’ corporation tax and business registration rates, the city state seems to boast a conducive environment for startups to grow. 

This year, Singapore remains as the top destination in Southeast Asia for startup investments. Enterprise Singapore Chairman Peter Ong said that approximately SGD11.2 billion was raised during the first 9 months of 2021, which is more than double of the amount raised in the whole of 2020. The startup ecosystem in this small city is booming, and ESG’s investment arm – Seeds Capital – is looking to appoint 13 new venture capital firms as co-investment partners to continue supporting the growth of Singapore’s startup ecosystem.  

Undoubtedly, despite the positive outlook in the environment for startups, the common challenges that startups face continue to pose a threat to the survival of these new businesses. Finding the right talent to nurture and grow the business is one of the top hurdles that challenge startups’ survival. With time being such a precious currency for startups, it is crucial for them to formulate strategies that can get them connected with the right talents.  

References: 

https://www.money.co.uk/business-loans/startup-cities

https://home.kpmg/sg/en/home/media/press-releases/2021/07/singapore-tops-2021-ranking-for-leading-technology-innovation-hubs-kpmg-survey.html

https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/garage/switch-2021/singapore-based-startups-raise-s112b-in-9m-2021-more-than-double-the-whole-of

https://www.straitstimes.com/business/singapores-tech-start-ups-raised-53b-in-first-half-of-2021-up-from-34b-in-2020

Almost 2 years of living in this Covid-19 pandemic, we have all heard about it. How this pandemic has devastated economies, damaged industries, employment prospects, and even radically transformed the way we work. Here we are today, having a grasp of living with the pandemic. Vaccines have already been developed, people are going through hybrid work arrangements, and even travel is slowly opening up and picking its pace. We are all flowing with the rhythm, adjusting to the changes as it comes.  

In Singapore, the healing process has begun since the start of 2021. As the labour market takes slow and steady steps towards recovery, there are already some encouraging signs within Singapore’s employment scene. In a recent survey, the net employment outlook – a metric to gauge expected increase in employment levels – reflected a 15% increase, which is the highest Singapore has seen in 6 years. Despite the resurgence of Covid-19 cases in Singapore, hiring activity has reached an all-time high. However, a rising trend in recruitment now is the contentious topic of including vaccination requirement as a hiring requirement. 

The premise of setting a vaccine mandate is largely to promote the safety and well-being of employees, especially for those who have to return on-site. However, to companies that are struggling with hiring and retention challenges, these additional requirements can pose a new hurdle to cross. Although Singapore’s vaccination levels are considerably high with over 80% of the population already being fully vaccinated, employers must not neglect the fact that there are employees with underlying medical conditions, pregnancy-related reasons, or even religious beliefs that do not allow them to be vaccinated. This is why the vaccination mandate can get tricky, because it can escalate to a case of discrimination if it is not handled reasonably.  

Covid-19 vaccination in the workplace 

On this topic, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has offered some guidelines that employers can follow. In essence, reasonable accommodations must be undertaken for those employees with special considerations.  

Firstly, employers can only legally mandate vaccines with new hires if and only if all existing employees in the same role are also fully vaccinated. That means that employees have to enforce the same treatment with current employees before imposing this new requirement in their hiring practices. 

From 1 January 2022, unvaccinated employees will not be allowed at the workplace unless they have a negative Pre-Event Testing (PET) result. This cost is incurred at their own time and expense. For unvaccinated employees without special considerations, it is also up to the employers’ prerogative to allow them to continue working from home if the work is able to be performed at home. If however, the work is unable to be performed at home, employers can undertake some of these considerations:  

1. Allow them to continue working with PET done at the employee’s own time and expense; or 

2. Redeploy them to suitable jobs or roles that can be performed from home; or 

3. Place them on no-pay leave or as a last resort, terminate them compliantly only if it is under the basis of their inability to be at the workplace to perform their contracted work dutifully. 

For unvaccinated employees with special considerations like certified medical reasons, they can be exempted from the workforce vaccination measures if they are unable to perform their work at home and redeployment of suitable jobs and roles is unavailable. In this case, employers should note that the absence of such employees from the workplace should not affect assessment of their work performance.  

Ultimately, as Singapore progresses towards an endemic, this topic of mandating vaccinations in the workplace will become more prominent. However, employers must carefully consider implementing any vaccination mandates in order to prevent any forms of discrimination. 

For more information with regards to MOM’s updated advisory, please refer to https://www.mom.gov.sg/covid-19/advisory-on-covid-19-vaccination-in-employment-settings. This article serves only as an extracted summary. 

Articles referenced: 

https://www.hcamag.com/asia/news/general/more-employers-in-singapore-mandate-vaccines-for-new-hires/313671

https://www.mom.gov.sg/covid-19/advisory-on-covid-19-vaccination-in-employment-settings

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/covid-19-vaccine-unvaccinated-public-civil-servants-unpaid-leave-psd-2285751

Early September this year, a new Jobs Taskforce has been assembled with the objective of helping boost the local talent scene for key sectors. As stated by Minister of Manpower Tan See Leng, there are three broad areas this initiative is targeting. One, to support locals in their career switch within the key sectors. Two, helping reskill existing workers to keep up with the growth and demands of their job in the key sectors, as well as three, advancing towards more progressive human resources management practices.

These key sectors cover 10 industries, namely infocommunications technology and media, financial services, and extends towards logistics, food services, retail, professional services such as accountancy, manufacturing, healthcare, wholesale trade, as well as built environment. The local talent crunch has always been a challenge for many Singaporean businesses, especially when it comes to looking out for talents equipped with digital and technology skills.

With this new Jobs Taskforce set up, it aims to involve various agencies like manpower, trade and industry, communications and information and coordinate their efforts in order to strengthen the growth of the Singaporean core in the sectors’ talent pool. As Singapore continues its fast-paced development in its economic plans, it further pushes the gap between the job demands and the skillsets of the current talent pool. Not only is it getting harder for the workforce to keep up with the jobs available today, it is also putting pressure on businesses to seek alternative options in building their workforce. 

Amidst COVID-19 and the weakened foreign labour conditions, the conversation about growing local talent sparked again, with the Singaporean Government pushing for employers to prioritize the hiring of local talents over foreigners. This is where certain industries struggle due to the imbalanced supply and demand of talents, and businesses will be disadvantaged if they are narrowed to the stiff competition of hiring from the small local talent pool within the industry.

All of these concerns and challenges form the core of what the Jobs Taskforce aims to tackle. As compared to the National Jobs Council, the Jobs Taskforce is taking a much more granular approach to understand the changing needs of these businesses in the identified sectors so they can help uncover skill shortages and the necessary solutions to fill the gaps. All of these builds towards the end goal of formulating policies that are tailored and well targeted to support the different groups.

References:

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/politics/new-task-force-to-help-spore-workers-get-jobs-in-10-key-sectors

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/new-jobs-taskforce-grow-local-talent-key-sectors-tan-see-leng-2152021

Once a bustling spot for tourists from the mainland, the pandemic as well as subsequent measures means that Hong Kong luxury retail has lost a significant portion of consumers — tourists from the mainland.

However, businesses have to make a living after all, and so outlets belonging to Luk Fook Holdings and Chow Tai Fook Jewellery, both rivals in the same industry of selling jewels, have turned their eyes on local consumers, pushing out benefits and discounts to locals. Luk Fook Holdings is even working with a local e-commerce platform to set up its own shopping website.

For other industries such as F&B, the increase in domestic consumers due to relaxation of policies since February means that life goes on as usual for them.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong is still pushing full-steam ahead with the goal of becoming one of the next R&D giants in Asia… or at least, there are signs of it hoping to be. Hong Kong is actively recruiting tech talents across the world, through the Technology Talent Admission Scheme (TechTAS). This scheme allows companies to employ tech talents across the sea, going beyond borders to find the best tech talents suited for the company. The mainland government has also set aside funds especially for researchers based in Hong Kong universities. 

It’s clear that beyond stagnating as a retail heaven, Hong Kong is now pushing forward as a formidable force in the field of technology too. 

Reference:

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/chinese-tourists-disappearance-is-remaking-hong-kong-retail

https://www.itc.gov.hk/en/fund_app/techtas/about_techtas.html

Linkedin just announced that it would be shutting down its operations in China today — or at least, it’s going to come back in the form of Injobs, a vastly reduced form solely for job search and recruitment, lacking the social media aspect such as the posting of articles and sharing of content.

However, the hiring grind simply doesn’t stop, and there are still plenty more ways to look for talents in China and hire them — there are plenty of job search avenues for Chinese talents too. Here are some of them.

1. Zhaopin.com

Founded in 1994, Zhaopin.com is one of China’s oldest job recruitment sites, and one of the most popular too. You can never go wrong with this site.

2. 51job.com

51job.com’s bright orange interface can never be missed. Starting from 1998, it is now serving millions of job seekers and recruiters.

3. 58.com

If you are hiring from outside, the smart website automatically adjusts to the location you are hiring from. It is also one of the top job searching and recruiting sites for Chinese people.

Hang on, you might ask. They are all in Chinese, wouldn’t that make it impossible for people who don’t know Chinese to navigate? Shouldn’t I be including English sites?

For starters, a majority of the English sites for jobs in China largely cater to foreigners/expats seeking a job there. For employers aiming to hire from China, some of those might not be the ideal choice, now that Linkedin is gone.

This is where our recruitment solutions come into play. Link Compliance’s curated pool of candidates allows recruiters seeking to hire in China exclusive access to candidates of higher quality than the market average. Our on-site team, well-versed and bilingual in English and Chinese, would be able to find you the best available candidate. If you are a job seeker trying to find the best available jobs in China, especially in the retail, biotechnology, IT and finance sector, our doors are more than wide open. Just enter our site, and get in contact with us.

No legal entity in China but you want to hire staff from there? You can consider our Professional Employment Organisation (PEO) services. We will help you hire employees in China under our name, but you get to do all the decision making and have full control over the employee.

In short, although China has its own job search and recruitment sites, for recruiters based out of China, our recruitment solutions and PEO services would be more than enough to service your needs, even before LinkedIn is gone in China.