Problems hiring technicians
 

Hi guys!

My company is a small SME in the manufacturing industry with a very small workforce of 22 people including operators.

We have been having problems hiring a technician for our production department.

We tried 2 different job portals. We interviewed about 3 people from the first ad which nine were suitable and none from the second. There were practically no replies for the second ad.

We want to hire fresh grads/ 1-2 years exp from ITE or the most Malaysians with technical credentials. But we haven't been able to attract such candidates. This is sort of a new position as the Exec in Production is retiring in a few years and we have created this new position to learn from this Exec and probably share the load with other staff in the department.

I would think that our company offers quite an attractive package with no shifts, 5 day work week and don't need to OT. The only disadvantage is the same as others is that we are in an industrial. We have health benefits and insurance for the staff as well.

We don't want to post an ad on job portals as we think there isn't much use. We may ask a recruitment agency for help. However, I don't know if that will work. We recognize that our target market is young and would use he internet but the job sites have been disappointing,

So sorry for the long story but are there any ideas on what we can do? Appreciate your comments!

We interviewed about 3 people from the first ad which nine were suitable.

Huh?

Anyway, you can try writing email to ITE see if they can help contact their recent grads.

After reading this, one point i find funny is - you hire fresh grads as technicians? fresh grad meaning degree grads or? if you were referring to degree holders, well, that's an underqualified job. Probably you have to play a part in ITE career fair and talk to the students and find those your company wants. Talking to students and seeing their work will give you great help in understanding their attitude and thinking.

4 years back, used to work in recruitment when i was in sg. such scenarios are common, even when i was recruiting for big mncs.

and if 4 join, 3 will leave within 6 months.

even for big positions, like directors, etc, it was quite bad.

well...there's a reason why 50% of the workforce in singapore are foreigners right.

For local ITE guys can only work at most 2 years. With so many pte schools offering diploma-degree programs, might as well study part-time for a private degree.

You need to be more specific on the requirements of the job in terms of education, experience, skillset and certification. Also need to tell us what exactly is your salary budget.

If you just keep things vague and say comparable to market it means nothing. Hard for others to advise like that. I suspect either you have scoped your job and candidate requirement wrongly or that your budget is simply too low and cannot match.

Thanks guys for the input.

We were very specific in our ad about hiring fresh to 2 yrs exp ITE grads/ or grads from similar institutions. We did receive quite a few diploma and degree holding applicants. However, degree holders were asking for too high. Our salary range is about $1700 to $2300 based on qualifications and exp. Education should be in Manufacturing, Mechanical, Electrical, Electronics Engineering or any related field.

We interviewed about 3 people from the first ad which none were suitable and none from the second. There were practically no replies for the second ad.

We has tried approaching ITE too and have broadcast in their weekly emails to students of related fields but did not get any favourable replies too. As for the career fair, we didn't think it was suitable as we only have that 1 position to fill. Would ITE allow us to set up a booth if we were going to just hire 1 person?

It's quite strange that we hear a lot about unemployment in Singapore and people losing their jobs, yet there are so few applicants for this position. And we really want to hire Singaporeans.

That is weird. With that salary range, it sounds reasonable to a polytechnic graduate, not just ITE grads.

please unless you are paying more than 3k, very few singaporeans are going to apply.

trust me, i was a full time recruiter.

Any suggestions on what other avenues I should try?
Maybe a recruiter? Can they help with such jobs?