The Dry Bulk employment market in Singapore has been steady over the last few years, while the market has been less than booming to put it nicely. Since the beginning of 2021, we have seen increased activity in Dry Bulk vacancies and hires in Singapore – both Operators, Charterers as well as Technical Superintendent and other vessel maintenance related vacancies – a natural sign of a market on the rise.
Now throw in 15 new vacancies for Charterers, Operators, and back-office functions for 1 specific owner, who is aggressively expanding in Singapore and setting up a whole new structure. What will that do to an already tight employment market for skilled Dry Bulk Professionals?
We foresee a shortage of candidates willing to move and that could drive up the cost of hiring significantly.
As a department head or HR Manager, what is your retention strategy, when the competitors come knocking on your team’s door to offer them a more attractive salary, job title, location, more freedom, better insurance or what ever else there might be on the table for a potential move?
Here are a few tips to help you out:
1. Ongoing follow up with your employees to know if they are satisfied in their job and get the challenges, they are looking for – and in cooperation with the employee do something about it if they are not, are essential
2. Ensure your employees´ salaries are at market standard. In a hot market it is too late to do something about the salary when a candidate already has accepted a position with another employer. Only in rare cases a counteroffer solves the problem.
3. Happy employees with an exciting job with possibilities of personal development, career progress, salary at market level and a great leader will very rarely accept another job offer. This is what you as a leader needs to strive for at all times
4. Your retention strategy begins when your employee joins the company, not when competitors are approaching. As soon as employees begins to consider other job options the risk of them leaving increases manyfold. You want to prevent they even begin to consider new job offers.
If you would like a discussion with us on how to retain your staff, salary benchmarking or just hear more about the movements in the market, please reach out to us, we are always available for a coffee on Teams.
stine@helm-recruitment.com
