Good Practices On Recruiting & Retaining Company Staff in Singapore
By Medinex Team
June 18, 2025
1. What Should You Do to Attract and Retain Company Staff?
Current Challenges in Recruitment
Specific In-Demand Skills
Key skillsets in AI, cybersecurity, cloud computing, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles, and business analytics are particularly sought after.(MyCareersFuture, "Singapore's Job Market In 2025: Which Industries Are Hiring?", March 2025)
Skills Gap as a Barrier to Transformation
60% of Singaporean employers cite the skills gap as the top barrier to business transformation, reflecting a global trend where the average is 63%. (World Economic Forum, Future of Jobs Report cited by HRD Asia, January 2025)
High Competition for Top Candidates
38% of employers struggle with intense competition to secure top candidates, leading to bidding wars. (Randstad Singapore Report cited by JustLogin, "Navigating the Talent Shortage: Key Hiring Trends for Singapore Employers in 2025", January 2025)
Job Hopping and Retention Issues
46% of employees are likely to leave within a year, with job-hoppers in high-demand fields expecting 12-15% salary increases. (Mavenside, Singapore Tech Talent Trends 2025)
(Source: Prevalence of burnout among healthcare professionals in Singapore. July2022 Annals of the Academy of Medicine Singapore 51(7):409-416 by Kok Hian Tan MBSS, Boon Leng Lim MBBS, Zann Foo BSc (Hons) Mgmt, Joo Ying Tang BEng (Hons) EEE, Mabel Sim BEng (Mechanical), Phong Teck Lee MBChB, Kok Yong Fong MBBS)
2. Good Practices for Recruiting Company Staff
Persistent manpower shortages and increasing demand for professionals resulted in a highly competitive staff recruitment landscape in Singapore. As a result, companies must find ways to stand out against other recruiters to attract the top talents. Consider some of the following good practices to improve your recruitment success.
A
Building a Strong Employer Brand online
- A professionally managed website and social media presence on key platforms are crucial to connect with the online-savvy Millennials and Gen Z talents.
- Besides highlighting business-related information on your online platforms, you should also present positive aspects of your work culture, company values, work environment as well as employee testimonials.
- Be intentional in using social media platforms to celebrate your employees’ achievements and successes at work. Present the more humane side of your company by highlighting charitable or sustainability-related company activities.
B
Make a compelling offer
- While attractive monetary compensation remains one of the key reasons for employees to join a company, other work considerations are becoming increasingly important in recent years.
- In putting together your offer, you should also consider these company perks for greater appeal.
- Availability of training and development opportunities.
- Flexible work arrangements.
- Mental wellness programmes.
- Diversity and inclusion practices.
- Sustainability policies.
C
Effective recruitment strategies
- Crafting Compelling Job Advertisements with stronger appeal.
- Highlight your company's mission and unique aspects of the company culture, values and practices.
- Showcase growth opportunities (CME, training, career pathways)
- Competitive salary and benefits.
- Use general job portals with strong healthcare sections such as Jobstreet, MyCareersFuture, LinkedIn, indeed, JobsDB for more generic positions. You may need to consider specialised recruitment agencies or headhunters for more specialised or senior positions.
D
Effective Screening and Interviewing
- It is important to establish a structured Interview Process for different type of positions:
- Behavioural questions to assess soft skills and cultural fit.
- Technical assessments (for staff/employees, practical scenarios).
- Panel interviews for diverse perspectives.
- Implement reference checks through verification of past performance and professional conduct, as well as credential and background verification.
- Professional staff/employees: educational transcripts, practice licenses, specialist accreditation etc
- Administrative Staff: Relevant qualifications, experience, and character references.
3. How To Retain Your Staff
- Comprehensive Onboarding Program
- Provide company orientation, values, policies and job-specific training and mentorship, as well as bonding activities to integrate the new hires with the team.
- Continuous Professional Development (CPD)
- Provide opportunities for skills upgrading and specialisation training in a structured manner ensuring equal access for all new hires.
- Positive & Inclusive Work Environment
- Advocate fair and respectful treatment across all levels of employment with clear avenues for employees to highlight concerns and issues. Implement work-life balance initiatives and transparent recognition and reward programs.
- Performance-based bonus and awards
- Besides keeping the basic salaries of your employees on-par with the industry, it is also important to incorporate performance-based components.
- Performance-based annual bonus on top of the 13th month can be implemented based on annual performance appraisal. E.g. Ratings above B are entitled to additional bonus.
- Monthly employee awards recognising good attitude and performance in the form of gift cards or dining vouchers can be great morale boosters for the staff.
4. Review and Improve Your HR Recruitment and Retention Practices
Whether you are just starting or you have been running your company for quite some time, it is important to consistently review your recruitment and retention policies to ensure your company’s competitiveness. Today’s Millennial and Generation Z workforce have different expectations and motivations compared to earlier generations. It is important to recognise this and be proactive in making changes to your policies to attract new high-performance professionals.
Medinex Limited is a team of business service professionals and certified public accountants based in Singapore who can help you manage your business risk and safeguard your corporate financial and structural constitution. We have over 20 years of experience and expertise in helping businesses navigate complexity while strengthening them through our complete services.
