KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 21): Legal, banking, engineering and technology roles will be in high demand in the Central and Greater Klang Valley regions due to the implementation of new government policies and the increase in digitalisation of business processes, according to Robert Walters, one of the world's leading specialist professional recruitment consultancies.
In its Salary Survey for 2019 released today, it said engineering and mechanical skills will continue to be in high demand in Penang as the state strengthens its position as a manufacturing hub. Top talents in supply chain with good communication skills will be highly favoured.
Other skills in demand include leadership competencies, research and development focused jobs like mechanical design, embedded software and system development. Salary increment remains minimal with increments of around 15% to 20% for job movers in the Northern region.
Job seekers in Malaysia seeking middle to top management positions will also need to sharpen their soft skills in leadership, communication, business partnering or business acumen, business strategy and learning agility to have a better chance to secure these high yield positions as talents in these areas are scarce, the survey shows.
"Hiring managers in the industrial sector will be increasingly looking for professionals with strong functional experience, strategic mind sets and strong leadership skills," said Robert Walters' country manager for Malaysia Kimberlyn Lu.
Digitalisation will also continue to be a key market driver and strong information technology talent will be highly sought. This is in line with the new government's direction where compliance to regulation imposed to minimise waste and lower operational expenses are expected to be the order of the day.
Companies will be eager to hire human resources professionals with more than generalist or administrative experience, favouring candidates with an ability to leverage human capital to add value to the business, the survey noted.
Technical know-how is also a key requirement as digital transformation and automation of various key sectors are still ongoing and professionals need to have the ability to leverage on a variety of technological and analytical tools for vibrant data analysis.
"We foresee a rise in SMEs, corporate organisations and multi-national companies (MNCs) adopting automation, Artificial intelligence (AI) and digitalisation in their business processes in 2019, hence, we will see a rise in demand for talents with a good mix of soft skills and technical know-how.
"The marketplace is getting more competitive, pushing companies to embark on aggressive digital transformation initiative to stay relevant and improve business processes, hence, companies are expected to increase investment in new systems and talent development to create greater presence online," Lu added, quoting the survey.
The legal and compliance sector is poised to become a "hot sector" for 2018/2019 as hiring activity will pick up for legal, corporate secretarial and compliance professionals following implementation of policies by the new government.
"Candidates with specialised skills in Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) in senior positions will remain high in demand. With re-introduction of sales and service tax (SST) strong demand for tax lawyers can also be expected moving forward.
"Hiring managers will continue to seek in-house legal counsels who are equipped with mergers and acquisitions or corporate commercial experience and company secretaries with strong communication skills to act as liaison to both internal and external stakeholders. The salary hikes to remain within the region of 20-25% as reference for candidates looking for a career change," the survey shows.
As for the banking and insurance sectors, there will be a strong demand for skills in business intelligence such as AI and machine learning, data analytics, risk management, statistics or mathematics.
Pay rises of 20% to 25% and up to 30% in niche and specialised areas can also be expected for those seeking new opportunities in the banking and insurance field.
Engineering and manufacturing sector will see strong demand for engineering professionals with international experience and especially working experience with MNCs. Candidates with exemplary skills in leadership, people development and learning agility will be high in demand as well. Job movers are expected to garner salary rise of 20% to 25%.
Technology and digital transformation is another hot sector for 2019 as the study shows that the IT talent pool remains limited. Hiring managers will be looking for candidates with multiple skill sets, such as DevOps and full-stack development.