Finance, accounting talent still in demand despite hiring cuts

Copyright 2009 Singapore Press Holdings LimitedAll Rights Reserved

The Straits Times (Singapore)

June 25, 2009 Thursday

Joanna Seow

THE rate of hiring may have slowed but financial institutions here are still taking on staff, and often at the same pay levels enjoyed during the boom years.

Recruitment expert Robert Half, which has recently completed its annual survey of the industry, said a general air of optimism pervades the sector in Singapore.

'The good news for the accounting and finance sector is there's still a demand,' said Mr Tim Hird, Robert Half Singapore's managing director.

'Statistics show there seems to be this perennial need for finance and accounting talent irrespective of economic conditions, and competition still remains strong for this talent.'

Mr Hird was speaking at yesterday's launch of the firm's annual salary guides for the next 12 months. The guides - which draw on research from surveys of human resources and finance heads across 21 countries, including Singapore, Australia, France, Ireland and the United States - give bosses and employees an idea of the trends and prospects in the sector.

One striking finding was that almost 75 per cent of the companies surveyed in Singapore cited difficulty in filling finance and accounting positions.

One reason for the high demand could be increasing calls for stronger corporate governance.

Dr Ernest Kan, president of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Singapore, said in a statement: 'With calls for greater accountability and transparency in financial reporting from the authorities and stakeholders alike, companies are requiring more competent candidates to effectively manage their finances and business risks, as well as optimise costs and processes.'

Contract workers such as tax accountants, senior auditors and people with business process improvement expertise are also in demand, as they allow firms to hire staff for a limited period to complete work on lower budgets.

Robert Half said that 79 per cent of Singapore employers expect the number of project- or contract-based professionals to increase or remain the same, due to the downturn.

The global recession has, in fact, spurred some companies to intensify efforts to gain a competitive advantage. Smaller, niche financial services firms are now getting access to talent that previously went to larger investment banks offering more competitive salaries. Those large institutions are typically still constrained by hiring freezes.

'We are heartened that employers recognise the necessity to retain their best talents, who will be instrumental in taking businesses to the next phase when the market turns,' said Mr Hird in a statement.

Robert Half also found during its survey that 60 per cent of Singapore employers have lowered or cut bonuses as a result of the economic situation, while 30 per cent have lowered starting salaries. But the firm expects salary levels to hold steady this year and into 2010.

Mr Hird said: 'As organisations continue to grapple with the challenges of the downturn, the increasing need for highly skilled finance and accounting professionals has lent stability to salary levels for these roles.'

Time to sacrifice and bring up our own children

Thursday June 25, 2009

Most of us are all too dependent on foreign maids to do house chores and taking care of children. There are benefits and also problems.

As for me, I have given up on hiring foreign maids. Our previous three Indonesian maids had their share of problems. We were tricked by the maid agency a few times.

Two out of the three maids didn’t pass the Fomema health screening and in the end, my wife had to resign from her job due to all these problems.

For starters, there is a significant loss of income but the benefits are very significant. No more headaches on foreign maids and we saved money on maid agencies and annual levy to be paid to the Immigration. It was a lot - if you need to pay RM5,000 yearly to get a new maid and if the current one keep giving problems.

Since resigning from her job, my wife is with the children all the time. She kept close monitoring of their school performance. She is the one who fetch them from school and send them to extra classes. You cannot be too dependent on school bus nowadays. She cooks healthy food for them.

With all these, I noticed they excel in their school examinations.

As a husband, you still need to do your part of the job. You need to give support and do household chores after work or at night.

As for the loss of income, it was not a big matter. I got a promotion after my third daughter was born and when my fourth daughter is two-years-old, I was given another promotion. All these have evened up the loss of income.

Apart from that, knowing that my wife are always there with the children, I can do part-time jobs during weekends for extra income.

I don’t even have to care about the controversy of giving the maids a day-off. Without hiring any foreign maid, our family is more settled now. No more headaches of all the problems of foreign maids. And I know that at all times, my children are in good hands.

NO MORE FOREIGN MAIDS,
Kuantan.

Moments spent with your children are priceless

Monday June 22, 2009

Monday Starters - By Soo Ewe Jin

WE celebrated Father’s Day yesterday. So it is a good time to talk about fathers.

More so after I read an interesting comment by Luke Johnson in the Financial Times recently entitled “Poor children of the rich and succesful”.

It was the last few paragraphs that caught my attention.

“Sacrifices generally have to be made for unusual success – whichever career path you follow,” Johnson wrote.

“And for those inventors and corporate pioneers whose life is their business, then it is all too clear where their ultimate priorities lie.

“Yet almost every entrepreneur I have known regrets not spending enough time with their children when they were growing up.”

My eldest son has just started work at the college he graduated from.

Compared with what I earned on my first job as a cadet reporter in the now defunct National Echo, he can certainly give me a treat when he gets his first pay cheque at the end of the month.

I am glad that he does not think that making lots of money is the most important thing in life.

Of all the things I have given, or not given to my two boys, one thing they cannot complain about is my time with them.

When the eldest one was in Standard One, I did a crazy thing. I exited the workforce and became a full-time father. My wife and I decided to have at least one parent in the home full time, and it began with me.

We have clocked up 16 years of being full-time homemakers. Our well-meaning friends, especially financial planners and unit trust consultants, like to talk about our foregone income.

They tell us that the reason we cannot send our children for an overseas education is that we did not build up our financial nest when we were most able to.

A common lament: “Why did you not earn when you were in the prime of your working life?”

That was good advice, but we chose to walk a different path. It is certainly not the definitive way for all parents to take, but we found it was the road that gave us huge dividends.

Somehow, one income, and a bit here and there with our freelance efforts, was more than enough to see us through.

But how does one put a price on time? How do you measure those moments of bonding with your children in their growing-up years?

Whether you are a CEO or a manual worker, we all have the same 24 hours in a day. I reckon if we were to divide our monthly salary by the number of hours in a month, we roughly know how much our time is worth per hour.

I got an email the other day about a boy who wanted to borrow US$25 from his ever-busy father who earns US$50 an hour.

“Daddy, I have US$50 now. Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you,” he said.

Well, some may dismiss this as just one of those feel-good email that make their rounds to make one feel guilty about spending too much time away from home.

The song Cat in The Cradle comes to mind. Made famous in 1974 by Harry Chapin, the song is told in first-person by a father who is too busy to spend time with his son.

And, eventually, the boy grew up just like him – a busy man who also does not have time for his father.

Time. It’s priceless.

● Deputy executive editor Soo Ewe Jin feels the balance sheet of life goes way beyond profit and loss and workers should not be treated as mere economic units.