Tech talent: Skills take time to catch up with demand

SINGAPORE – When businesses embrace new cutting-edge prospects, there is always the risk of a skills mismatch.

This is because the opportunities often appear on the horizon faster than it takes to build a pipeline of ready talent that can fully match the numbers and skill level needed to pursue these prospects, said talent watchers The Straits Times spoke to.

This comes as the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) released its annual report on job vacancies for 2022 on Thursday. It found that technology talent remained highly sought after, notwithstanding job cuts at top firms such as Shopee and Meta.

There is still resilient demand for cloud computing, cyber security, fintech and Web3 talent, said Ms Betul Genc, country manager for Singapore at recruitment firm Adecco.

But some vacancies for professionals, managers, executives and technicians remained unfilled for a long time, and the main reason employers cited was the lack of necessary skills and work experience, the report found.

The problem is particularly prevalent for positions that require specialised technical knowledge such as software development, added MOM.

This represents an ongoing skills mismatch, said Associate Professor Trevor Yu of Nanyang Business School.

“However, it is also important to note that such skill mismatches are relatively common across most economies worldwide, as there is a global shortage for such skills,” he added.

Specialised technical skills tend to evolve constantly at a fast pace, leading to a consistent lag between the skills that are being developed via skills programmes and what employers need, he said.

“Skills mismatch will be an ongoing issue as long as new jobs continue to be created,” said Mr Sim Gim Guan, executive director of the Singapore National Employers Federation.

He said that even if the Republic has started to train new cohorts of students or reskill mid-career workers, it will take time before they enter the workforce and gain the experience to take on more senior roles.

“Workers that are skilled and, thus, able to take on the in-demand roles, may also choose other careers,” added Mr Sim.

To reduce such mismatch, he said, employers have to think ahead in terms of their skills demand and work with the Government and unions as well as education and training institutions to start training students and workers for these new skills.

Another reason employers cited for vacancies being left unfilled for long was unattractive pay.

To this, Associate Professor Nigel Phang, also of Nanyang Business School, said companies should conduct job evaluations to accurately reflect the value of jobs that require new or higher technical knowledge.

“However, it may take some time for the market to provide sufficient benchmark data to help companies make better-informed salary decisions.”

Prof Yu said: “The current workforce is sensitised to the relatively high rates of inflation and higher cost of living, and that factors down to their expectations.”

Although small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) may not be able to match the wages of large enterprises sometimes, they can still close the gap with measures such as flexible work arrangements and giving variable performance-based bonuses, said Mr Ang Yuit, vice-president of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises.

He added that government support for SMEs to shift back-office functions offshore, rather than just expanding sales to new markets, would also help reduce the number of open vacancies.

MOM also found that food and beverage services, retail trade, and cleaning and landscaping saw higher shares of vacancies that were new positions.

It attributed this to firms redesigning jobs and adopting new business models to cater to changing consumer patterns.

These changing patterns include the rise of fast, casual dining; e-commerce spanning multiple platforms at once; and self-service business models, said Mr Ram Lakshminarayanan, head of people and change advisory, and partner at KPMG Singapore.

“Correspondingly, the type of talent that will need to be hired could cut across product design and development, marketing, user experience and customer engagement – but with considerations for how this talent can introduce new thinking into the way customers interact with brands.”