MANILA, 22 JANUARY 2010 – With the continuously rising need for human resources across several industries, a global recruitment company has expanded its services to offer contract staff for clients in Singapore.
Robert Walters, which has been providing IT professionals for the past 10 years, is expanding its services to include hiring temporary staff for companies in the fields and function specialties of IT, financial services, human resources, finance & accounting, secretarial & business support, supply chain management, legal and sales & marketing.
The company noted that with the economic downturn, companies find it more practical to be flexible in its human resources staffing requirements.
“The contract market remains resilient, with fixed term contract hiring providing organisations with the flexibility to complete business critical projects, despite permanent headcount restrictions or freezes,” the company said.
Hiring during a downturn
Instead of becoming too overly cautious in hiring staff during a downturn, companies have realised that they can hire temporary staff to get the tasks done without worrying about the cost.
“With tighter budgets and headcount restrictions, organisations will be looking at increasing the use of contractors and Robert Walters anticipates that a significant number of project-related roles and even line management roles traditionally seen in a permanent capacity will be offered as contract opportunities,” the company said.
Temporary workers are not only good during times of uncertainty. They can also be tapped for temporary or special projects when hiring more permanent staff may be impractical. Examples are hiring workers who can temporarily replace those who are on maternity or sick leave, or when a project has to be tried out first before a more permanent commitment can be made.
Robert Walters said tapping the services of a recruitment firm may also be cost-efficient during a downturn since they have access to a rich pool of talents. Some of those in the pool may even have niche specialisations or enough experience and these are the kind of skills that may be difficult to find.
Robert Walters noted that hiring contract workers has been a feasible solution among multinationals in Singapore because of its flexible model.
