China’s Big Tech firms drive talent war in Singapore

In the 3rd of a 7-part BT-Lianhe Zaobao series on China and Asean, we look at the talent war that China’s tech titans have sparked in Singapore with their offers of high salaries, flexible work arrangements, and professional development opportunities.

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China’s tech titans have sparked a talent war in Singapore with their offers of high salaries, flexible work arrangements, and professional development opportunities. ZB ILLUSTRATION: HO HAN CHONG
Singapore Human Resources Institute president Low Peck Kem noted that competition for talent manifests not just in salaries offered, but also non-financial components such as bonuses, training, skills upgrading, flexible work arrangements, interesting projects and impressive job titles. PHOTO: LOW PECK KEM
Huang Yishu, founder of IT specialist recruitment agency Dada Consultants, said salary levels have been rising across the industry over the last 3 to 4 years, though this is not due solely to China's tech titans. PHOTO: HUANG YISHU

DeeperDive is a beta AI feature. Refer to full articles for the facts.

Liu Liu

Published Sun, Jul 3, 2022 · 10:00 AM

AT THE start of the year, former civil servant Ye Jiahui (pseudonym) left the government agency where she had worked for 9 years for the private sector, joining one of China’s tech giants.

Ye’s husband is South Korean, and they have a three-year-old child. She told Lianhe Zaobao that her decision was not based solely on salary considerations; rather, she wanted a new environment with flexible hours that would allow better work-life balance.

During the pandemic, Ye’s company at one point allowed their employees to work remotely from overseas. She said: “If my husband needed to return to Korea for whatever reason, I could apply to work from Korea for two months, which wasn’t possible with my last job.”

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