Companies willing to pay higher salaries for high performers
Written by The Star Tuesday, 07 June 2011 08:22
PETALING JAYA: The hiring race is heating up as companies are moving up a notch in terms of salary, benefits and career progression.
The Asia Job Index 2011, recently released by Robert Walters, a major professional recruitment consultancy, revealed that Malaysia has seen a 33% hike in job advertisement numbers in the first quarter of the year – signalling a hike in recruitment activity.
In the midst of this heightened hiring spree, headhunter Reza Ghazali said more local firms realised that they would have to pay to hire good and appropriate talent.
“Local companies do not want to be left behind by their multinati-onal counterparts in the race for talent. In fact, they are close to matching up with the international competition,” Reza, who heads Korn/Ferry International (Malaysia), said yesterday.
The surge in recruitment is a situation where demand for workers is greater than supply.
“Shortage of skilled talent – especially technical professionals – has become more critical in the past few years as the industry sees an upswing in investment and activities,” Petronas said in a statement to The Star yesterday.
This is made harder as “talent pinching” from competing firms locally as well as internationally has become the norm.
“In the last few years, we have seen a movement of professionals from this region to the Middle East. With activity set to rise in the sector, more talent crunch is expected,” Petronas said.
For telco giant Maxis Bhd, competition has heightened among industry players in terms of attracting and retaining the best talent.
“The industry is experiencing the highest levels of talent movements than it ever did in its history, with double digit attrition rates across the different job levels in the industry,” its chief talent officer Kala Kularajah Sundram said in an email interview.
For Bank Negara Malaysia, hiring has moved beyond the financial services to rake in the best.
“We source for top talent across various backgrounds and industries,” it said.
