As the number of foreign workers taking up professional, manager and executive (PME) jobs have grown “exponentially” in Singapore, mid-skilled level jobs like Human Resources (HR) are also being snapped away by foreign talents, said Senior Consultant at HRmatters21, Martin Gabriel.
“I’ve been seeing increasing number of foreigners doing HR. The thing about HR is that you need to know about the local labour regulations and be sensitive to the local culture. It’s a people-oriented job, not a task-oriented job,” said Mr Gabriel in a live chat with TOC earlier on 14 July.
He added, “The fact that we are now talking about a huge number of foreigners coming to Singapore for jobs and there aren’t enough jobs for Singaporeans testifies to that.”
As to why some companies hire foreigners as their HR officers, Mr Gabriel believes it is because the company wants some kind of control of it.
For instance, a Japanese company will always have a Japanese managing director to promote their culture in the company, explained the HR expert.
However, the disadvantage to this practice is that the HR officers will suffer with the culture, legislation and labour laws of the local country as it is needed for them to perform the tasks.
As such, Mr Gabriel opined that HR jobs in Singapore should be given to local Singaporeans.
“I do believe that HR jobs should be local due to the sensitivity that goes with it, as well as the understanding of the culture and value of the country.”
If that’s not all, Mr Gabriel also noted that he has read many job descriptions of mid-skilled positions like HR officer, admin executive and secretary, in his 30 years of experience in the industry.
To this, he can assure that these jobs are something Singaporeans can do.
“I’m on the ground so I can see what these PMEs actually do… I also see the job descriptions and I’m quite sure Singaporeans can do the job,” he said.
Locals are forced to take transactional jobs
Given that foreigners are filling up positions that Singaporeans can do, it has now resulted in locals opting for transactional employments like food delivery riders and taxi drivers in order to make ends meet, said Mr Gabriel.
“When our people got nowhere else to go, they go for transactional jobs like delivering food and driving taxis. This is doing more harm to our competitiveness,” the HR Consultant reiterated.
In Singapore, jobs like food delivery riders and private-hire drivers can only be applied by Singapore citizens.
Adding to this, Mr Gabriel also noted that individuals who are above 40 are also finding it extremely tough to look for a job.
When they exit from their job, they could be earning around S$4,600 – which is generally the median salary for people in that age bracket. However, when these individuals try to re-enter the workforce, employers are only offering them slightly more than S$2,000, said Mr Gabriel.
As such, they don’t have a choice but to look for transactional jobs.
When asked whether jobs like Safe Distancing Ambassador (SDA) or securing guard checking SafeEntry app of patrons are considered proper jobs, Mr Gabriel opined that it is currently a good option due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since there are more people unemployed these days, especially those in the aviation industry, My Gabriel feels that they can be a SDA, but this should not be a long-term job.
He explained that SDAs are paid about S$4,600 a month but their job requirement is to just warn people to maintain a safe distance among each other in public spaces.
“To me, it doesn’t commensurate with the task. To me, they’re overpaid but it’s fine because we are currently in the midst of a pandemic. But once COVID-19 ends, I don’t think this kind of job will do any good,” he said.
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