Right choice: Singapore’s business district at night. Non-monetary matters such as workplace culture and the environment are factors that young job seekers increasingly consider when selecting an organisation to join. — AP
SINGAPORE: Young job seekers here are scrutinising long-standing hiring and workplace practices, prompting some employers to change tack in order to attract them.
Asking thorny interview questions on last-drawn salary, and using this figure to derive pay offers, is one practice that has come under especially heavy challenge amid these ongoing shifts.
Justin Liaw, 24, for example, said it disadvantages those who took on lower-paying traineeships during the Covid-19 pandemic, when jobs were in short supply.
He has been looking for a data analytics role in either a multinational firm or the public service, since his one-year traineeship with a global bank ended in July.
Most employers view his stint as an internship rather than work experience, but still count the S$2,500 allowance he received as a last-drawn salary for interview negotiations.
“It is a difficult question for me to answer because my last-drawn ... may not be indicative of the value of what I can contribute to the company,” he said.
Labour watchers previously told The Straits Times that last-drawn salary is a factor employers commonly use to determine a recommended salary to offer a candidate.
Lim Chai Leng, general manager at recruitment firm Randstad Singapore, said: “However, it is becoming less socially acceptable to request this information from job seekers.
“This is because of the growing understanding between employers and employees that workers should be compensated for their merit and capabilities, rather than having their value calculated based on their previous compensation.”
Meanwhile, non-monetary factors such as career development opportunities, the potential impact of the work done, and workplace culture and environment are factors that young job seekers increasingly consider when selecting which organisation to join.
They are less afraid than older counterparts to mention this in job interviews and move on from employers who do not provide satisfactory answers, said Lim.
Younger job seekers also tend to ask interviewers about a prospective employer’s values, as well as diversity and inclusion efforts, she added.
She cited a Randstad Singapore survey of over 2,700 employees here in January, which found that 24% of Gen Z employees aged 18 to 24 would rather be unemployed than work for a company that does not align with their personal values.
This was slightly higher than the figure of 21% for Gen X, whom Randstad defines as aged 35 to 54.
Other questions that younger workers like to ask interviewers include those relating to company culture and team dynamics, such as what kind of reporting lines or management styles they can expect, as well as career progression opportunities, Lim said.
Echoing her sentiments, 27-year-old legal practitioner Yuan, who declined to give his surname, said he and his peers treat interviews as “more of a two-way thing”.
One question he always poses to prospective employers is the standards used to assess performance.
“Those that gave a generic answer I didn’t find insightful made me wonder if they had clear metrics for assessing performance, or if it’d be a very political workplace where performance was based on perception,” said Yuan.
“There are certain human resources practices we’re not so open to accepting among our generation,” he added.
One aspect of job interviews in which younger candidates do not appear to differ significantly from older ones is in the questions they ask when applying for senior-level positions, said Tonny Loh, partner at executive search firm Heidrick and Struggles’ Singapore office.
But this could be because younger candidates with the required life experience to be competitive choices for those roles are still relatively older than those in the wider job market, he said. — The Straits Times/ANN
