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Is it time for companies to rethink the way they hire and groom talent?

Work-life balance matters, but recent study suggests that young workers value job satisfaction and stability

About 61 per cent of Gen Zs in Singapore are worried about their ability to find a meaningful career, says a study.

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Bill Ng, Content STudio

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Ms Ayesha Shaikh, 30, worked for over a year as a portfolio manager in a business consulting firm, earning a high four-figure salary.

In July, she left a reasonably stable job and took the leap into running her own business. She started Ogutmek, which sells Turkish coffee paraphernalia.

Like a growing number of her peers, she quit without a plan. She felt stressed, anxious and burned out from overwork in a job that seemed like “an endless, meaningless pursuit”.

The flux

Ms Shaikh’s sentiments mirror the findings of UOB’s Asean Consumer Sentiment Study 2023. The study found that Gen Zs (aged 18 to 24) and millennials (aged 25 to 40) in Singapore yearn for a meaningful career. And they value work-life balance.

The challenge for employers: How to manage talent and expectations among younger workers with such competing demands?

Ms Shaikh, who has an accounting and finance degree from the University of London, feels it is about embracing change and challenge, with a good measure of flexibility.

Previously bound to a traditional 9-to-5 work week, the single now enjoys a more flexible schedule. A typical work day ranges from three to 18 hours, and she mostly works from her three-room Housing Board flat, which she shares with her mother.

Her two part-time employees, who are also her friends and in their late 20s, also work flexible hours.

Gen Zs: The search for a meaningful career

More Gen Zs in Singapore are taking to LinkedIn to find jobs and build their networks, reflecting a global trend.
Gen Zs see internships as a way to explore different interests and advance their career prospects. This student did five internships in three years to figure out what she wanted.

“The 9-to-5 work week with weekends off belonged to the industrial age. Today, with the ease of access to work technology, it’s a bigger problem beyond work-life balance,” she says, questioning whether workers still need to work as long as they did before.

Such expectations seem to reflect a state of flux, especially among Gen Zs in Singapore. UOB’s study found that while just over 60 per cent worry about finding a meaningful career, 45 per cent fear losing their jobs.

So what is the crux of the tension? A struggle over work-life balance? Job fulfilment? Purpose?

Country manager of ManpowerGroup Singapore Linda Teo explains that this tension persists because Gen Zs grapple with expectations versus reality.

“On one hand, Gen Zs want to work in their ideal jobs, but the reality is that their ideal job may not pay enough to afford their desired lifestyle, and they may not be able to secure that job in the current economic climate,” says Ms Teo.

This is despite the current unemployment rate, which has remained relatively low. As of July, the overall unemployment rate was 2 per cent, according to Ministry of Manpower (MOM) data.

“For employed Gen Zs, they worry about losing their jobs because they may need the income to sustain their quality of life.”

She adds that younger workers have experienced greater job instability than their predecessors, and they also realise that they need to work longer, in their lifetime.

“This phenomenon is not unique to Singapore; it is part of a global trend,” says Ms Teo.

MOM's second-quarter labour market report notes that labour demand will continue to ease and be uneven across industries, given the weak external environment and economic growth for the rest of the year.

But Mr Dean Tong, head of Group Human Resources at UOB, feels it is more a reflection of market dynamics and the evolving needs of workers as they move from one life stage to another.

“It is also about demand and supply. There are companies that are willing to pay 20, 30 per cent more to recruit talent, instead of developing their own talent,” says Mr Tong.

He adds that there are also employees who know what they want in a job, and are prepared to put in the extra work without the extra money.

“These are people who are driven by the meaning of their work, and know their purpose in an organisation. There is also the fact that as the worker grows older, priorities change,” says Mr Tong.

The fix

The solution to finding work-life balance, insists Ms Shaikh, lies in trust and autonomy. “Younger workers can be trusted to do their jobs with full autonomy and be treated as adults, which they are.

“Some employers still hold on to the old ways. There is a fundamental need to rethink how we want to structure our lives.”

The notion of work-life balance assumes that companies can hire and retain talent. It leads to the question: Should an organisation source from within, or hire outside the organisation?

ManpowerGroup’s Ms Teo says that there are pros and cons to both approaches.

Promoting an existing employee improves retention and loyalty, strengthens morale and is more time-efficient, as the employee would be fluent with the company’s system and culture.

But such an employee can also suffer from groupthink. Also, choosing an internal candidate may create vacancies in other parts of the organisation, and may prevent the company from tapping a wider talent pool externally.

An outside hire brings fresh perspectives and best practices, filling a role that requires a niche skill set that may not be available internally.

But it costs time and money to hire an external employee. The new hire will need time to settle down, and may face resistance from internal staff, leading to friction.

UOB’s Mr Tong believes in the value of internal talent mobility, and that it takes a concerted effort by an organisation to retain and groom employees.

“It is actually easier for a hiring manager to hire someone externally that matches the skill sets required for a role,” he says.

“But to promote internally requires effort by both the hiring managers and employees, and shows that the organisation is supporting talent development.”

For example, Mr Tong shares how the bank recently launched their Career+U programme this year, which takes an on-the-job (OJT) training approach to ease a high-potential employee into a new role.

“We believe it is the ultimate platform for upskilling and reskilling, because employees see an immediate application of the skills learnt, and it reinforces the learning process.”

The future

Peering into the talent horizon, are conventional yardsticks such as paper qualifications still critical to sussing out talent?

UOB’s Mr Tong explains that paper qualifications are “a good signal” for fresh graduates to show if they have an aptitude for learning, are hardworking, and have discipline.

“We have no other indicator of whether the individual can do the job. Therefore, we use academic results as a first step, as an entry point.”

Beyond paper qualifications, the ability to master and apply soft skills becomes critical to an individual’s career success.

To address this, the bank launched its Better U programme in 2019 to equip employees with five core competencies – growth mindset, problem solving, digital innovation, human-centred design, and data storytelling.

To illustrate the importance of soft skills, Mr Tong points to the role of an information technology project manager as “one of the most difficult positions to hire for”.

“Everyone has the same knowledge, but the project manager who can see the big picture, put it all together, communicate it well, and unlock each team member’s potential – that's the value of a leader that we need,” Mr Tong adds.

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