Talent hunt goes global as Singapore employers contend with remote hiring

VYING for talent in Singapore has now become a global matter, as local companies contend with offshore companies looking to hire remote workers.

According to payroll and compliance startup Deel, talent in Singapore is being scouted and hired by companies elsewhere in the world. The most popular country for Singapore talent on Deel is the United States, with 44 per cent of Singapore workers hired via Deel bound for US companies. The United Kingdom comes a distant second at 14 per cent and Hong Kong at 7 per cent.

This global competition for talent has led startups across the globe to be more open to the idea of remote work. And even as global companies hire remotely from Singapore, Singapore companies are hiring remotely from other countries as well.

“One main reason is the massive funding and rapid growth of companies in the Web3 and Crypto spaces, where talents are especially scarce and remote work is widely accepted,” said Ethan Ang, co-founder of tech career platform NodeFlair.

In the past, hiring someone to work out of a foreign country was a legal and logistical hassle. Ensuring employment contracts weren’t illegal as well as meeting employer obligations could be complicated.

This has made emerging employer-of-record platforms, such as Deel, attractive. Employer-of-record (EOR) companies handle the legal and administrative needs of hiring employees in a foreign country where a company does not have a registered presence.

EOR platform Pilot said remote software engineers earn about S$12,105 per month. In addition, there is usually a fee charged for each remote hire. This can start at US$29 but goes up as companies customise the service to include legal and administrative work, with varying levels of legal indemnities against tax penalties or misclassification of labour. That’s also not counting in various insurance needs that remote workers would expect.

Recruiters The Business Times spoke to haven’t seen the remote hiring trend impact a large proportion of the Singapore working population yet.

Part of the reason stems from foreigners being unable to work out of Singapore without a work visa, which takes out a large portion of the workforce. Singapore also continues to offer opportunities for future growth, as well as competitive salaries.

“In my opinion, the main reason for Singaporeans taking up remote offers is for the lifestyle — the flexibility of ‘work anywhere’ especially outside of Singapore. For example, one of our candidates rejected our Singapore client’s offer for a foreign-based company so that he could work remotely in Europe for a year,” said Elena Chow, founder of talent consultancy ConnectOne.

For now, it seems countries such as Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia have piqued more interest from companies seeking tech hires. Lower costs and the availability of talent compared to Singapore have driven hiring demand there, including from Singapore companies that have set up tech hubs in Vietnam.

“When it comes to the limited supply and sometimes lack of required talent, companies are open to hiring remotely without on-site presence, subject to fulfilment of the job responsibilities, which is the key deciding factor,” said Sachet Sethi, manager of tech and transformation at recruitment consultancy Robert Walters Singapore.

Workers overseas too are looking to work remotely for Singapore companies. On career platform NodeFlair, in the last 30 days, 50 per cent of applicants applying for jobs in Singapore are based in Singapore, with 28 per cent in Asia outside of Singapore, and 21 per cent from the Americas, Europe and Oceania.

“While remote or hybrid working arrangements enhance talent value proposition for the workforce, businesses on the other hand are taking advantage of this by considering a staffing model that includes remote work away from Singapore, with potentially lower cost structures and higher profit margins being the primary driver,” said Tan Yong Fei, head of work and rewards, Singapore, at talent consultancy WTW.

On the startup front, the hiring of remote workers has been focused on technical talent. Tech hubs overseas power the backends of most products. But now, even non-technical talent is being considered for remote work.

“This is primarily due to the increase in educated jobseekers in neighbouring countries, which actually narrows the competency gap between local Singapore jobseekers and them. Add the lower compensation, increased number of employer of record platforms, plus improved local internet connectivity, (and that) makes it much more attractive to hire teams outside of Singapore,” said ConnectOne’s Chow.

Deel is also seeing more companies picking up remote hires out of Singapore as well. “Through Deel, the number of workers that Singapore firms are hiring for is higher than the amount of talent that global firms are hiring out of Singapore,” said Karen Ng, regional head of expansion & market lead, Singapore, Hong Kong, Asean and India, at Deel.

Still, there are challenges that come with hiring remote workers: dealing with multiple timezones, for instance, or the lack of face-to-face interactions to understand an organisation’s culture. Also, there are roles that still require an employee to be based here to attend to clients on the ground.

“In fact, with all the tax implications that remote working from outside attracts, companies are targeting to have talent based in Singapore itself. In addition, quite a lot of technology projects in Singapore require the talent to be on client site in Singapore, which challenges the purpose of having someone work remotely,” said Nilay Khandelwal, managing director, talent consultancy, at Michael Page Singapore.