Talent hunt: People walking at the Raffles Place financial business district in the city-state. The rise of offsite work, overseas expansion by Singapore companies and a global grab for talent here have prompted Deel to expand its presence. — AFP
SINGAPORE: San Francisco-based global human resource firm Deel plans to open its Asia-Pacific base here and hire more than 400 local workers in the next four years.
The rise of offsite work, overseas expansion by Singapore companies and a global grab for talent here prompted the firm to start planning with the Economic Development Board to expand its presence locally.
Deel – like many employer-of-record companies – takes on employment contracting, compliance and recruiting, while also assuming legal responsibility for employers who want workers.
It conducts the checks and paperwork that come after hiring, especially in markets where clients do not have legal entities.
A Deel study in 2022 found that Singapore was the second fastest-growing market in the Asia-Pacific based on the number of its firms hiring globally.
Deel told The Straits Times that the firm itself supports “thousands” of employees in over 25 countries that work for Singapore companies.
Its spokesman added that hiring is happening both ways: “We just hired additional recruiters to focus solely on the Singaporean talent pool due to the success of our operations.”
Last November, the four-year-old company with 2,100 employees bought PayAsia, a payroll firm founded in Singapore in 2006.
Deel now books US$295mil (RM1.36bil) in annual recurring revenue.
Atlas, another America-founded employer-of-record company, calls Singapore “one of our fastest-growing markets” in the Asia-Pacific.
With the take-off in digitalisation, chief executive Rick Hammell said, many firms established startups, or scaled up overseas after the pandemic.
People also found new ways to make money, he said, noting: “A lot of entrepreneurs were born from Covid-19. So, those entrepreneurs here in Singapore are now branching out their businesses.”
Singapore’s bilingual workforce that serves both English and Mandarin-speaking markets such as China and Hong Kong makes it a prized source of talent, Hammell added.
The company has about 60 employees in China and 15 here, although five to 10 more could be hired within the next two years if growth remains strong, he said.
Remote, another employer-of-record firm, released a study in April that showed 32% of companies use such services for recruiting and managing their remote workforce in the Asia-Pacific.
Revenue for the San-Francisco firm more than doubled in the past 12 months, said its chief revenue officer Christopher McNamara.
Human resource professionals say the employer-of-record model is not new, but the recent rise in the engagement of such firms is led by new operators, new products and convenience.
“One of the biggest (employer-of-record) companies, Globalization Partners, began its operations in 2012,” Khairil Baharudin, a certified professional from the Institute for Human Resource Professionals, cited as an example. — The Straits Times/ANN
