Singapore firms hired nearly half of new staff from overseas in past six months, plan to recruit more abroad: report

SINGAPORE: Nearly half (49%) of Singapore-based companies’ new hires in the past six months were from overseas, and 76% of HR leaders are expecting more than half of new hires next year to also come from abroad, Singapore Business Review reported, citing the Remote Global Workforce Report 2025.

Notably, firms also expect 40% of upcoming roles in the next half-year to be from overseas—a move reflecting global trends where nearly three-quarters of companies surveyed said they had expanded their overseas teams in the past year.

While the same international hiring trend was seen in South Korea, adoption remains slower in Australia. The report noted that the UK, the US, and Germany are among the fastest-growing destinations for talent.

HR teams in Singapore, mostly in teams of just five or fewer members, currently manage staff across three or more countries, making operations increasingly complex. To keep up, companies are turning to automation and AI tools to simplify payroll, compliance, and regulatory processes.

The report also noted compliance risk concerns that 79% of HR leaders face amid unclear or conflicting local regulations in international hiring. About one in three reported difficulties entering a new market because of onboarding or paying employees compliantly, while two in three experienced compliance issues, which cost them an average of more than US$36,200 per incident.

Operational difficulties such as maintaining consistent employee experiences across countries (26%), managing misclassification risks (24%), and handling multiple HR tools (24%) were also mentioned.

As a result, 51% of HR leaders are now exploring ways to consolidate their systems into an integrated platform that covers payroll, compliance, and reporting. /TISG

Read also: Lack of career support seen as biggest barrier for Singapore workers