Tag: personal skills

Hong Kong employers seek skilled tech talent overseas

According to a report from Glints, Hong Kong-based employers are expected to increase their demand for skilled tech talent from Southeast Asia due to a talent shortage and brain drain in the tech sector. The Hong Kong government’s recent announcement to “trawl for talent” globally to attract talent back to the country has further reinforced this trend.

The Managing Director of Glints, Puay Lim Yeo, noted that Hong Kong-based employers are becoming more adaptable by hiring skilled talent from markets like Indonesia and Vietnam, thus building high-performing teams in a cost-efficient way. The report also highlights cost advantages for Hong Kong-based employers in hiring for Southeast Asia tech talent, as well as more manageable salary expectations for talent in 2023 compared to previous years.

In terms of median salaries for tech and tech-adjacent roles, the report found that there are cost advantages to hiring skilled talent in Southeast Asia. For instance, median salaries for tech roles such as engineering, product, and data are 2.5 times higher in Hong Kong than in Southeast Asia, while median salaries for business development roles are 3 times higher in Hong Kong compared to Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

However, the report also noted that median salaries for senior software engineers with 5-10 years of experience are 3 times higher in Hong Kong compared to Indonesia and the Philippines and 1.8 times higher than in Vietnam. Additionally, median salaries for product manager roles are 2-3 times higher in Hong Kong than in Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

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Personality over professional and education, reveals survey

A new survey by small business lender iwoca has revealed the most sought-after skills that small business owners look for when hiring new employees and what impacts their hiring decisions.

With small business vacancies hitting record highs at 575,000 (a 72% increase from the same period last year), the survey revealed that more SME owners are looking for personal skills instead of professional ones when hiring.

The top five attributes were:

  • Honesty (44%)
  • Good personality (38%)
  • A skill set that matches the job description (37%)
  • Experience in a similar position (37%)
  • Good at verbal communication (34%)

According to the survey, the least important attribute was an undergraduate degree, with only 6% of small business owners believing that an undergraduate degree is important when recruiting.

When looking at the impact of recruitment on a business, 15% of small business owners believe that poor hires prevent future company growth and a further 11% agree that it leads to fewer sales.

Flexible working arrangements seem to be one way for new hires to meet their potential. Nearly half of the respondents who offer flexible working believed that these arrangements positively affected productivity. Only 7% said that it had a negative impact.

The survey results indicate that millennial business owners are more likely to offer flexible working arrangements, at 43%, compared to older generations, at 35%.

Seema Desai, Chief Operating Officer at iwoca, commented: “Small businesses employ over two thirds of the nation’s workforce. Some of the perceived barriers to applying for a job, such as having a degree, might not be as high as some job seekers think they are. Our research reveals the importance of strong personal skills when applying for roles, and the importance of hiring to the future growth of any business.”

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