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Landmark study conducted by HRBoss reveals that Singapore companies are not wising up to the power of a compelling Employer Brand

A simple search for the phrase ‘Employer Brand’ brings up around 4.3 million hits on Google and yet the idea still remains elusive for one of the World’s busiest commercial hub and financial epicentre – Singapore. According to a new report by HRBoss, Asia’ leading Tech innovator offering Cloud-based solutions for HR & Recruitment, top Singapore companies have still not woken up to the need for a great Employer Brand.

A shortage of home grown Talent off-set with the increasing mobility of workers, an ageing population, declining fertility rates and tightening labour laws have intensified Singapore’s climate for recruiting, making the fight for brainpower ultra-competitive and “a blood sport”. Technological developments today – social and mobile in particular- have powered a paradigm shift in the way Talent Acquisition is managed and so in order to attract and woo Talent effectively in 2014, organisations today can no longer afford to fade into the background.

In 2013, HRBoss conducted an in-house study of the top 30 companies on the Straits Times Index (STI) - a market-capitalisation-weighted index which ranks companies in terms of their market value, free float and liquidity- to see how they fare in terms of Employer Branding. After a series of website and job application evaluations based on factors that are most likely to influence a job seeker’s impression of a company, HRBoss found that the top companies were not taking hiring seriously enough.

One year on, HRBoss conducted a similar study in June 2014 to see what improvements had been made for 2014 and the results indicate that Singapore is on the right track but still not hitting the mark.

Notable findings from the study include:

• Though Singapore is now one of the most mobile-savvy in the Southeast Asia region with a massive mobile penetration rate at 148.9%, only 20% of companies have recognised the importance of a mobile-friendly website and have set up optimised sites to engage the new Talent pool. Webpage experience on the other 80% of companies remains extremely poor.
• Companies are trying to build their presence on social media. But only 13% include a ‘share’ button for web visitors to share jobs with their connections and a miserable 3% is leveraging on social networks to post job opportunities.
• Dedicated sections for employee testimonials show that companies are acknowledging employees’ role as brand advocates. However, the other 53% companies are still not promoting their company culture effectively.

Commenting on the significance of the study, Bernie Schiemer, CEO & founder of HRBoss said,” When it comes to building an effective long-term strategy for a sustainable Talent pipeline, Employer Branding lends a critical head-start but companies are not as effective as they should be. Our study has shown that a huge disconnect exists between what prospective candidates are looking for and what organisations are ‘selling’. This is where HRBoss comes in to fill in the gaps. Our solutions are engineered to help companies leverage multiple channels to get their message across, to instil a personalised brand so that they are not missing out on any opportunity to connect with prospective candidates that could have the potential to drive the success of their company.”

Download the entire report at  http://hrboss.com/employer-branding-key-talent-attraction-singapore