According to a Global Talent Management and Rewards Survey done by advisory firm Willis Towers Watson in 2016:
- Six in 10 employers in Asia Pacific are facing challenges in retaining employees.
- Employees in Singapore view fair pay, opportunities to learn new skills and job security as important. They also consider the physical work environment, and healthcare and wellness benefits.
- Employees with alternative and flexible work arrangements are more engaged and less likely to be retention risks
In reality, it is usually difficult for potential employees to get a full understanding of a job before joining a company, and this can lead to many deciding to leave after they start the actual job.
Workforce Singapore’s Careers Connect has targeted strategies to address these issues and through its unique offerings, helping employers and employees find a match with each other.
1. Hire people who live within the vicinity of the workplace
A workplace near home provides flexibility for employees. Taking this into consideration, Careers Connect works closely with employers to identify and match suitable jobseekers that lives within the vicinity of the workplace. Instead of sieving through numerous job applicants and having them reject your offer due to the distance of the workplace from their home, contact Careers Connect to get recommendations of jobseekers who stay within the vicinity.
Ms Lim Luck Cher is an example of a jobseeker who successfully found a job near her home. Three years ago, Ms Lim stopped work to care for her mother. When she was looking to get back into workforce this year, finding a job near home was a priority as she wanted to be able to get home quickly should the need arise. Careers Connect successfully found her a job at Tampines, and her employer Giant Singapore in turn, gained an engaged worker.
2. Organise visits to workspaces
As the physical work environment can determine whether a person stays at a job, Careers Connect organises learning journeys where participants can tour the place where they would be working.
During Ms Lim’s learning journey at Giant Singapore’s Tampines Hypermarket, she got to see the exact environment that she would be working in and the tasks that she would have to undertake if she applied for a position at Giant Singapore.
This helped her to make an informed decision to apply for the job as she was comfortable with the work environment and got a clear picture of the duties related to her job.
3. Create opportunities for jobseekers to speak with current employees
Employers will try to be as detailed as possible when putting out the job description for vacancies, but there will always be things about the job that are difficult to put on paper and that can only be discovered once a person starts working.
The curated learning journeys gave participants the opportunity to speak to existing staff members and to gain a deeper understanding of the job and what the role entails. This can also assure potential applicants that they are up to the task of the job.
“I got to speak to the staff working there and ask them any questions I had about the job. The team members were very friendly and after speaking to them, I was confident that I would be able to do the job even though I had no experience in sales or retail, shares Ms Lim.
