How these 3 Singapore founders get past the tech hiring crunch

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The tech hiring crunch is only getting worse, and Singapore will be one of the hardest hit by talent shortages, according to a study by Los Angeles-based consulting firm Korn Ferry. Another study shows that 65 percent of Singaporean employers are finding it difficult to even attract talent.

Here’s how some founders in Singapore are getting past the talent crunch.

Editor’s note: Answers have been edited for clarity.

Christina Teo, founder of Want Things Done

All companies face hiring challenges in every department. But it’s hardest to find and hire people who have multiple skills rolled into one, as the paradigm is shifting back to extreme specialization. Startups may not have the funding to hire a gamut of vertical experts or have the management structure to instill synergies between them.

For example, we’ve been working with a few companies on revamping their brand. One company we work with has a lean team, but to solve their problem, they need to hire several experts. Not only is their internal team too junior, they also don’t have the budget to hire more senior people.

This is even more difficult with the increasing complexity of social media. An expert in Instagram may not know much about Google or SEO, and a social media expert may not be an overall content strategist.

What will help is getting specialized people to help out in and lend themselves to other projects or acquire resources that have a shared mentality with you—much like what Uber and Grab do.

The rise of tech talent from India and Vietnam offers some relief for organizations. Some companies are prepared to move entire divisions offshore to mitigate not just resource bandwidth but also cost. The rising cost of critical functions such as data scientists, marketing automation experts, developers, and programmers are adding to the hiring crunch. So, companies will have to be more open to a hybrid mode of talent acquisition and talent insourcing and outsourcing.

Cat Williams-Treloar, CEO at Humanisation

Let’s discuss