Many enterprises today face a tangible need to hire the right talent in order to continue their growth on an upward trajectory with 91% respondents according to the Compass Office’s recent global customer survey, stating that they are confident that their companies will grow over the coming year.
Spanning various industry sectors, including IT and technology, consulting, retail, manufacturing, finance and recruitment, the survey respondents across APAC reported a predominantly positive recruitment forecast, with 49% of those questioned planning to hire more staff over the next twelve months.
So with confidence high and companies keen to add talent that drives their businesses forward, what skillsets should prospective employees be looking to highlight on their résumés in order to catch a hiring manager’s attention?
The Big Three
Unsurprisingly, sales, IT and marketing skills came out in the top three of most companies’ lists, indicating longer-term strategic planning, along with a willingness to invest in high-quality human resources for sustained business growth over the coming months and years.
Conducted in February and March 2016, the insightful Compass Offices survey indicated that 44% of Australian companies are on the lookout for sales talent this year, indicating an aggressive growth strategy for 2016/17. Similarly, driving sales is also a key priority for nearly 41% of Singaporean and 40% of Hong Kong respondents to the survey – notably similar figures in these two neighbouring, and often directly competing markets.
Meanwhile, a remarkable 58% of Chinese firms are keen to hire skilled marketers to help them push both domestic and international trade ventures, while 33% of Philippine respondents also highlighted excellent marketing skills as a key requirement for new hires in 2016.
But it’s not all about client interaction and business development – technical hires are also being prioritised this year, with virtually all of the hiring respondents hoping to add to their IT headcount throughout the course of 2016.
Nearly 23% of Singaporean, 20% of Philippine and 21% of Australian firms listed the development of their IT capabilities as a priority in 2016, with Hong Kong (18%) and China (8%) just a little way behind.
Other Key Findings
Apart from the “big three” specialist skills, the survey also uncovered that majority of the seven regions were keen to expand their pool of engineering talent. With 11% of Japanese, 7% of Polish, and 6% of Vietnamese companies in need of this specialist skillset, it’s clear that good technical skills are prized across various industries and geographical locations.
Finally, hiring within the field of research and development is also looking buoyant in 2016 across almost all of the surveyed markets, with 20% of Vietnamese and 10% of Japanese firms surveyed identifying this as a key hiring need. Conversely, Philippine respondents identified a current need to increase their R&D headcounts, indicating that, as with engineering, this occupies a niche, industry-specific space.
