Are you struggling to keep up with current regulations and trying to find qualified financial services professionals trained in compliance?
You’re not alone, because the constantly changing business/regulatory environment can be hard to monitor. With recent developments, it’s becoming clear that the demand for compliance professionals in Singapore is on the upswing.
In a recent survey by specialist recruiter Rovert Half that included 100 CFO’s in Singapore, three conclusions were discovered:
- 46 percent of the CFO’s stated they will be hiring additional permanent compliance employees.
- 95 percent are having a hard time locating qualified individuals to fill these positions.
- 76 percent say that the compliance costs in their business are higher than they were three years ago.
So what happened to cause this difficult situation?
Due to a stricter regulatory environment around the world, the government in Singapore continues to add and modify regulations for businesses. As a result the costs of complying with these regulations are rising.
The natural solution is to hire more employees skilled in regulatory compliance. However, the cost and demands of compliance rose so fast that the need for financial compliance professionals quickly pulled far ahead of the supply of these individuals in the labor pool.
Now, there is a great need for employees with this specialized skill set and not as many qualified candidates available for hire.
As per Robert Half, it is important that companies find a solution to this problem.
In the short-term, companies will be forced to pay a premium to relocate qualified employees and bring them to Singapore. If these employees choose to stay long-term, that’s great.
However, Singapore businesses need to plan for the long haul. They need to assess their current workforce and identify which individuals could benefit from additional training to fill compliance positions. Developing a strong pipeline of in-house and local employees is important.
As the demand for compliance professionals goes down and positions are filled, compliance costs for most businesses will follow. However, in the near future the demand for compliance professionals in Singapore will remain high.