Businesses in Malaysia will continue to utilize contracting to meet their hiring needs in 2017 as the benefits to both employees and workers become clearer. The slow economy has led many organizations to face hiring restrictions, with contracting being a simple way to tackle this issue and ensure that key projects have sufficient manpower required.
In addition, contracting is being used as a way to try out multiple candidates with different skillsets before making a full time hiring decision. These findings were revealed by Randstad Malaysia in its recent market outlook for the region by Ryan Carroll, Country Director, Randstad Malaysia.
At Randstad Malaysia, we’ve seen an increase in the number of contract hires by 300% specifically in the technologies space last year.
Contracting roles are also starting to have less of a stigma attached to them, for Malaysian job-seekers. The flexibility offered with contract roles and the ability to work on projects for a wide range of different organizations is a strong draw for candidates looking to grow their resume.
Digital Strategies Create Demand for Technology Talent
The technology industry continues to surge forward as organizations across the globe rush to adopt new digital strategies to combat digital disruption and Malaysia is no different. Discussions with leaders of organizations in Malaysia have revealed that most are looking at projects to integrate technology into their processes or products to stay ahead of the competition.
Moving into 2017, two key trends have emerged. Firstly, larger organizations are scrambling to take technology headcount in-house to drive their digital strategies. This has created huge demand for skilled tech talent. At Randstad Malaysia, we’ve seen a +200% growth in roles that come into the Technology practice in 2016 alone.
Secondly, the technology skill gap will continue to increase as technological advances outpace the speed of current training programmes. To bridge this gap, successful organizations need to include specialised training and development budgets to upskill their workforce to tackle organizational digital strategies.
See: Malaysia’s Slow Hiring Intent Likely to Continue in 2017
Demand for Risk and Compliance Specialists
Banking and finance continues to show growth in certain business functions, such as for example risk, compliance and operations. As organisations globally look at improving productivity, specialist skillsets are required and Malaysia is no different in this regard.
With the increased number of fraud and money-laundering cases reported in Malaysia, we are seeing a continued demand in banking roles such as Risk Managers, Auditors and AML professionals to oversee the operations in financial organizations and to help mitigate cyber risks.
More Focus on EVP and Employee Engagement
As talent retention continues to be high on the agenda for most organisations, the HR division at Randstad Malaysia has seen an influx of roles starting this year, focussing on people engagement and EVP development.
If millennials are a key target for talent, and it likely is, employers and organisations need to ensure that their Employee Value Proposition (EVP) caters to the needs and demands of this workforce generation. Young people are looking for jobs that offer them a sense of meaning and a better work-life balance.
Besides great benefits, understanding what motivates employees and inspires them is the key to maintaining employee engagement. Organisations that have EVPs designed to cater to the growing employee needs, will stand a better chance at retaining their talent.
Public Infrastructure Drives Malaysian CPE Industry Forward
Construction, property and engineering continue to be strong growth areas in a slow global economic environment with major projects, both into property development and public infrastructure making headway.
Major projects such as the Signature Tower, KL118, Bandar Malaysia, Tun Razak Exchange, MRT2, The DASH Highway and the new KL to Singapore High Speed Rail are creating jobs and driving strong demand for talent across various disciplines including quantity surveyors, project managers and M&E engineers.
Also read: Top 10 Talent Trends for Malaysia in 2017
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