Stricter working permit system a challenge for employers

Starting September, foreign workers will be subject to increased scrutiny under the upgraded EP application system.

Singapore’s new tougher employment pass application process kicks in from September, with employees subject to a points based assessment designed to ensure that only higher quality expatriates are offered jobs in Singapore. Now, candidates and their employers are required to pass a point-based evaluation and higher qualifying monthly salaries. On the face if it, it may seem that this will make it harder to recruit expatriate talent however HR experts the Singapore Business Review spoke with felt that as long as companies had a good strategy to clearly work out which jobs could be filled by local employees and which ones would need expatriates these new rules should not be too onerous.

One of the key steps to avoiding hiring congestion, which is when there are extended holdups in hiring foreign talent, would be to identify roles that can be filled locally 100%, Nilay Khandelwal, managing director of Michael Page Singapore, told Singapore Business Review.

“Make sure that you have a complete clear strategy on what those roles are. Ensure that, whether you’re working through talent partners in the market or through your own internal talent acquisition teams, the focus should be to recruit those roles locally,” Khandelwal said.