A new set of challenges for compliance hiring managers in Singapore

The last 6-7 years have been a period of massive growth for the Compliance space in Singapore as a result of increased regulatory pressure across the globe. Accordingly, demand for Compliance talent has boomed since then. We are now at a point where the market is more mature, but the rapid growth has created a unique challenge for hiring managers seeking the best talent for their teams.

There are three main challenges I see when I speak to hiring managers seeking to fill middleweight to senior roles:

1. Lack of in-depth experience

When firms started to realise they needed far more Compliance personnel than was available at the time, hiring managers began pulling talent from a patchwork of related backgrounds, like Legal, Risk and Audit. Increased salaries and an active hiring market enticed people who weren’t necessarily experienced for the roles into the Compliance function, and the bidding war began.

In the current market, firms no longer need to focus purely on increasing the headcount and size of compliance function, so hiring volume has dropped from the highs of a few years ago. But challenges remain, with firms now looking to source more specialist, experienced or technically skilled people.

As financial services firms focus on cost – and with the spotlight increasingly falling on compliance – Compliance hiring managers in Singapore have been reluctant to buy in new talent from external sources. Instead, they have looked internally, which solves short-term headcount issues, but leaves firms over-exposed and without new sources of knowledge and expertise bolstering their bench-strength. With many firms currently splitting out headquarters and functions, the next generation of leaders is required, but firms are finding that the rapid expansion has left them short on expertise.

2. Thin talent pool

Another related issue is purely mathematical, and that’s the number of people available for these roles. While the number of people in the market has increased and many people are willing to jump ship for a large pay increase or instant title upgrade, it is harder to find experienced individuals looking to develop longer term careers. And with local and international firms competing for the same talent, resulting in a lack of options, particularly when it comes to the more specialist roles.

Although the pool is thin, there are still strong candidates for every job – they just might not be the obvious choice and may not be actively applying for roles – requiring specialist hiring knowledge to seek out the hidden talent.

3. Local hiring requirements

With the Singaporean government focused on creating more opportunities for Singaporeans, firms are looking to develop the local talent pool as much as possible.

This does however create challenges for organisations, as growing a generation of talent takes time, and firms are in a constant balancing act of choosing between promising local talent or bringing in exceptional overseas talent.

Danos Associates has been serving the Singapore Compliance market for 5 years, and our team’s combined 20 years’ specialist local Compliance experience means we’re ideally placed to help hiring managers get the specialist talent they need. With offices also in Hong Kong, London and New York, we are able to tap overseas markets when required. We focus on building long term relationships with top tier firms and the hiring managers within them, prioritising consistency and offering our services as genuine business partners.

To start a discussion about your compliance hiring needs, contact me.