Most employers are concerned about the impact of skills shortages on their business operations, according to the 2013 Hays Asia Salary Guide.

The majority of employers say skills shortages have the potential to hamper their business, while almost half (49 percent) say it will affect their operations “without a doubt.” This is a significant increase from 38 percent reported by respondents to the 2012 survey.

Some 22 percent of employers said that they face difficulty in recruiting recruit junior to mid management-level candidates in engineering, while 20 percent said they have problems filling sales roles. Sourcing junior to mid-lvel management in IT (15 percent) and technical skills (16 percent) were also a challenge for employers.

For senior management, employers said that a talent crunch exists in sales (16 percent), engineering (14 percent), accounting and finance (13 percent), and HR (13 percent).

“While these figures are slightly down from our last survey a year ago, skills shortages remain a challenge for Singapore and Asia in general,” says Chris Mead, Regional Director of Hays in Singapore and Malaysia.  “However, 68 percent of employers say they are willing to hire or sponsor qualified overseas candidates in skill short areas – up from 66 percent in 2012, while 52 percent have used flexible staffing approaches in the past 12 months.”

To plug the gap, 88 percent of employers said they are using contract workers, with a quarter of them (25 percent) expecting the use of these workers to increase in the next 12 months – up from 18 percent in 2012. Mead adds that this suggests that Asian employers are adapting to the economic climate and thinking of innovative ways to address the issue of skills shortages. 

Access the 2013 Hays Salary Guide at www.hays.com.sg/salary, by contacting your local Hays office or by downloading The Hays Salary Guide 2013 iPhone app from iTunes.