Almost half of the job vacancies for blue-collared roles in Singapore remained unfulfilled for more than six months in 2021. And based on the scenario on the ground, this problem does not seem to have been alleviated in 2022. Not surprisingly, this scenario is not unique to Singapore and resonates across Southeast Asia. Enterprises across industries face huge challenges in hiring blue-collared roles such as labourers, cleaners, assistants, waiters, drivers and more.

Challenges faced by organisations

Firms that prioritise sales-related investments to drive more revenue often neglect investing resources for the human resources function. This leads to poor workplace planning and a desperate just-in-time hiring approach. The lack of investment in HR technology platforms compounds the problem as enterprises are unable to predict the talent supply. They are at the mercy of fluctuating market demands.

The pandemic has exacerbated the problem. Border restrictions have visibly impacted the labour crunch as foreign workers’ cross-border movements were inhibited. Moreover, safe distancing measures created a huge demand for roles such as security personnel and cleaning staff. This demand has accentuated the talent supply gap in this segment.

The result is that most organisations find it difficult to attract blue-collared workers. For organisations that prioritise diversity and inclusivity at all levels, the lack of gender diversity in the blue-collared workforce is also a concern.

Candidate apprehensions

 According to a survey from Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower, about 52 per cent of the blue-collared roles are vacant because candidates find them physically too strenuous, while 42.6 per cent of vacancies did not offer attractive pay. At the same time, 36.8 per cent of jobs were not filled due to a non-conducive work environment.

With about 29 per cent of jobs asking candidates to work on weekends and 27.5 per cent of them requiring odd shift hours, these blue-collared workers majorly lack the consumer-grade employee experience.

Leveraging tech to attract, hire and retain the blue-collared workforce

Technology has helped many industries improve their business processes and enhance employee experience. The biggest benefit of digitising the blue-collar workforce processes is that enterprises can bring people and machines together for their complementary strengths—judgment, teamwork, creativity and social skills of the former, and the speed, scalability, and quantitative capabilities of the latter.

HR technology can be leveraged to upgrade blue-collared workplace experiences:

  • Investing in workforce planning platforms can help organisations to forecast business demands and better plan their resources.
  • Smart use of technology to automate labour-intensive recruitment processes will help bridge the talent gap.
  • Smart HR platforms also help to evaluate performance metrics and wage models by aligning pay with improvements in customer satisfaction ratings and process throughput.
  • Providing mobile-first, bite-sized learning through best-in-class learning and development tools will upskill the workforce in their workflow and translate into better productivity.
  • Deploying new-age employee listening and communication tools can help enterprises to enhance employee engagement and satisfaction.
  • Earned Wage Access (EWA), a technology system that allows employees to get their wages as they earn them, say, every week instead of every month, may appeal to workers.

Many technology tools are available that will help optimise non-PMET workforce management. From recruitment and onboarding, employee engagement and training to compensation and benefits, HR technology can help companies better manage non-PMET workforce and operations. Companies just need to embark on creating a digital-first mindset amongst their leaders and employees.

The article is an edited version of the first one published in SCMP.