Advertising agencies in Singapore are increasingly resorting to
"non-financial carrots" to retain staff in a bid to stave off dotcom
poachers, according to Morgan & Banks' third quarter job index
survey.
The most common type of non-financial benefits were family-oriented,
such as family medical cover, paternity leave and family travel
benefits.
Other enticements included leave entitlement for staff who had been
working away from home for an extended period and creative salary
packages to help reduce personal taxation bills.
With dotcoms offering extremely attractive salary and stock option
packages, agencies have been pushed into offering other types of
incentives in a bid to prevent key staff members from moving into the
realm of cyberspace.
Organisations most likely to offer such benefits were in the advertising
sector, with 85 per cent of respondents stating that they now provided
non-financial benefits, the survey for the July to September period
found.
Morgan & Banks regional director for South Asia Barry Vienet said that
staff retention was an issue of most importance in the ad sector since
advertising professionals were the people dotcoms sought the most for
their branding and marketing experience.
"In the past, the prospective employee had to sell him or herself.
Today, that has reversed and the employer must sell the organisation to
the job-seeker. This is a significant shift and it is a recent
development," he told MEDIA.
While Hong Kong still placed a higher emphasis on the monetary rewards
of the job, non-financial incentives were also being used, but not to
the extent in Singapore, Morgan & Banks regional manager, human
resources, Kevin McCormick said.
"Agencies in Hong Kong are now focusing more on informal rewards such as
recognition, increased opportunity to work on key projects as well as
being given the chance to work in overseas offices," Mr McCormick
said.
"This is all through increased communication, especially with key
personnel, but it's not across the board."
Overall, agencies in both Singapore and Hong Kong reported that they
would continue hiring more people in the third quarter because of better
economic fundamentals which is fuelling an increase in advertising
spend.
In Singapore, 84 per cent of respondents said that they expect to
increase staffing levels, and 14 per cent saying there would be no
change.
The figure for Hong Kong was 43 per cent and 57 per cent respectively.
